Ita Buttrose is a trail-blazer – the first female editor of a major newspaper in Australia, a publisher, broadcaster and campaigner of equal opportunity for women. She’s promoted health issues, the needs of family and Australia’s ageing population. She’s always had a passionate interest in her family’s history, particularly in trying to unravel why her family changed their name from Butters to Buttrose, but has never had the time to investigate. Driven by the fact that many of her immediate family have creative and “nomadic” lives, she’s curious to find out whether these are ancestral traits. Ita was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988.

• Richard Mellick
• Ita Buttrose