Maiden Australia began as part of my PhD. While researching Australian media, I became aware of the repeated exclusion of women’s lives and labour from historical records and media archives.

While not always obvious, the decision to remember and commemorate some stories over others has had a major influence on our national identity. It impacts who we deem worthy of celebrating, the voices we amplify and the leaders we select. 

As historian Gerda Lerner writes, ‘History is not the past. It is the stories we tell about the past.’ Today, many people still cannot name a single woman from Australia’s history. 

Maiden Australia is an attempt to revive stories long neglected by mainstream history books and storytelling. It seeks to ensure these women are archived, remembered, and accessible for generations to come, so that when we think about the past, we widen our scope. 

I ask that listeners learn their names and share their stories, to bring us one step closer to this vision. .