By Julie Power
Discovering how Fanny Finch, a publican and a woman of colour, used a legal loophole to vote decades before women were enfranchised changed Sita Sargeant’s life.
“I started asking: ‘Where are the women in history?’ Finding the story of Fanny Finch was one of the first moments when I felt very seen as a woman of colour,” said Sargeant, whose mother is from South India. “Why did no one tell me Australian history was actually interesting?”
Sita Sargeant will soon be running walking tours in Sydney and Melbourne that highlight women’s place in history. Credit: Wolter Peeters
Stuck in Canberra during COVID, Sargeant discovered diverse stories - including the first female architect and the Sydney woman who turned the meat pie into an icon - and then drove across Australia with her old dog looking for more.
Thoughts of becoming a diplomat flew out the window. At 23, she started a Canberra walking tour business, She Shapes History. Now 27, her first book of the same name will be published by Hardie Grant Books in mid-April, with vignettes and walking maps.
Sargeant said women had not only contributed to history but shaped it. “For too long, the impact of women on our country has been overlooked and underestimated.”
NSW Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe agreed. “Women have often been overlooked in the retelling of history. I am determined to make sure that is not a tradition we continue.”
Sharpe said the government’s blue plaques program, including a new round to be announced soon, would double the number of women recognised compared to the previous government.
That included a new plaque, installed last year on Phillip Street, to recognise the contribution of Kathleen Butler, one of Sergeant’s heroes.
Described by many as the godmother of the Harbour Bridge, Butler worked as the project manager. Her official title, though, was confidential secretary. When she got married, she was forced to resign from the public service.
Sita Sargeant says too many have been overlooked in history. A new book of walking tours and stories about women in history aims to put women on the map. Credit: Wolter Peeters
About to launch walking tours in Sydney in May, Sargeant said her three-year-old business has a team of 10, and 8000 people have attended the tours.
“There is a real hunger for women’s history that’s accessible and engaging,” she said.
“The extreme audacity and confidence of me, someone who had no experience in tourism or history saying, ‘I’m going to run a walking tour’. I think it shows how frustrated I was with a lack of recognition for women’s history.”
In 1856, Finch, a single mother of four of African descent, exploited a loophole that allowed “rate-paying persons” to vote. Her vote was disallowed, and the law changed to exclude women.
A walking tour with Sargeant is an adventure. Searching for the plaque for women’s and Indigenous rights campaigner Jessie Street took detours.
“It is like a scavenger hunt.”
When she passes Governor William Bligh’s statue, she says his daughter Mary saved him from an angry mob while he allegedly hid under his bed during the Rum Rebellion.
“She was out the front, with an umbrella, going, ‘go away, go away’,” said Sargeant. Lifting her large pink umbrella, a standard accessory as tour leader, she shook it at Bligh.
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