• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE1063

Arena, Franca

(1937 – )
  • Born 23 August 1937, Genoa, Liguria Region, Italy
  • Occupation Parliamentarian, Women's rights activist

Summary

Franca Arena was born in Genoa, Italy, and migrated to Australia in 1959. She was the founding member of the Migrant Women’s Association, president of the National Italian-Australian Women’s Association, founder of the New South Wales Ethnic Community Council, won a Churchill Fellowship, and was Commissioner of the Education Commission of New South Wales. In 1981, she was the first woman from a non-English speaking background to be elected to the New South Wales Parliament, where she served for seventeen years. Arena resigned from the Australian Labor Party in November 1997, remaining in parliament as an Independent until her resignation from Parliament in March, 1999.

Archival resources

  • National Library of Australia, Manuscript Collection
    • Papers of Franca Arena, 1959-2005 [manuscript]
  • Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection
    • Franca Arena - papers, ca.1960-2000
  • State Library of New South Wales
    • Franca Arena - correspondence, 1984-1996, concerning the Women's Network

Published resources

Related entries


  • Presided
    • National Italian-Australian Women's Association (1985 - )
  • Founded
    • Australian-Migrant Women's Association (1974 - 1990)
    • Women's Network (1984 - )
  • Foundation Member
    • Australian-Migrant Women's Association (1974 - 1990)
  • Related Events
    • Immigrant and Refugee Women's Speakout
  • Related Concepts
    • Italy Born Community of Australia
    • Women in Politics: Australian Labor Party
    • Women in Politics: Independents
  • Featured in
    • Being Seen And Heard: Migrant Women Organising In Australia, A Documentary History (2006 - )
    • Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches: Women Candidates for the New South Wales Parliament

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