Juana Inés de la Cruz
Mexican writer and poet
Mexican writer and poet
Translator for Hernan Cortes
Zitkála-Šá (“Red Bird”), also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Native American musician, writer and activist who fought for women’s suffrage and Indigenous voting rights in the early 20th century. Her writings and activism led to citizenship and voting rights for not only women, but all Indigenous people.
Juana Azurduy de Padilla was a guerrilla military leader who fought for Bolivian independence, earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She was known for her strong support for and military leadership of the indigenous people of Bolivia, then called Upper Peru.
Agnes TuiSamoa spent a lifetime supporting and campaigning for the rights of her fellow Pacific Islanders in Auckland, both new migrants and their New Zealand-born children.
Georgia Douglas Johnson was one of the most well-known Black female writers and playwrights of her time. Known for writing most about love and womanhood, Douglas Johnson’s published works touched many and were featured in the most widely-read Black publications of the twentieth century.
Mary Geddes, along with other YWCA representatives, took a leading role in the revival of the National Council of Women of New Zealand in Auckland in 1917.
Violinist Wilma Smith maintained a strong profile as soloist and chamber musician in Australasia.
Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie was a Ngāi Tahu (or Kāi Tahu) leader and woman of mana, and a prominent activist in the fields of Māori welfare and health from the 1970s to the 1990s. She was a long-serving member and president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, and an acclaimed researcher in the area of Māori women’s health. She also served on the Human Rights Commission and in a wide variety of other public positions. An accomplished actor, singer and orator, she also composed waiata and poetry.
On 1 December 1971 the young Kiri Te Kanawa took the operatic world by storm when she made her debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden.