Keynote Speakers

Women of Ideas: Feminist Thinking for a New Era
17 to 20 July 2007, Townsville, Australia

Ten feminist thinkers, activists, writers and advocates brought local and international perspectives to the summit.

Farida Akhter

Publisher of Narigrantha Prabartana, the only feminist publishing house in Bangladesh. An internationally recognised feminist activist, Farida led women’s groups, critiqued coercive population-control measures and worked with FINRRAGE. Her books include Depopulating Bangladesh and Resisting Norplant.

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Shamima Ali

Coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Fiji Human Rights Commissioner and chair of the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women. Shamima developed community education programs and advocated for women throughout the Pacific region.

Susan Hawthorne

Poet, novelist, publisher, theorist, aerialist and long-time activist. A co-founder of Spinifex Press, Susan wrote widely on globalisation, biodiversity, Indigenous peoples, women and the often-unseen torture of lesbians.

Judy Horacek

Australian cartoonist, printmaker, writer and illustrator whose strong, witty female characters became feminist classics. Her work has appeared in newspapers, journals, books, household textiles and greeting cards around the world.

Sheila Jeffreys

A founding member of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia. Sheila taught sexual politics, lesbian politics and international feminist politics, and wrote and spoke internationally on sexual exploitation.

Catharine MacKinnon

Lawyer, teacher, writer and activist. Catharine is an influential legal scholar whose work helped establish pornography as a civil-rights issue and rape as an act of genocide in international law.

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Betty McLellan

Ethicist, author, psychotherapist and long-standing activist. A member of the Coalition for a Feminist Agenda, Betty connected strong local feminist organising in Townsville with radical global feminist activism.

Florence Onus

Media specialist, former lecturer in Indigenous Australian Studies and a survivor of the Stolen Generations. Florence continued her family’s fight for social justice, with particular attention to Black deaths in custody and Stolen Generations issues.

RAWA

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan is an independent organisation of Afghan women fighting for human rights and social justice, with programs supporting women’s education, health and income generation. The speaker’s identity was withheld for security.

Purna Sen

Then Amnesty International’s Director for the Asia Pacific region and formerly a lecturer in Gender and Development at the London School of Economics. Purna’s research and activism addressed violence against women, human rights, trafficking and civil society organising.