A memorial service attended by the Governor-General, is held for feminist activist and republican, Joan Bielski. Joan would have been highly indignant that the event, held in Parliament House Sydney, was overlooked by signed photo-portraits of the Queen and Prince Phillip. Joan was a representative of Women into Politics on the organising committee for the Women’s Constitutional Convention in January 1998 and was pictured on the front page of The Australian on 2 February 1998 as one of the “Mothers of the Republic”.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
