NANAIMO (NEWS 1130) Its been said that women have always been an equal part of the past, they just havent been a part of history. The author of a new book is doing her part to change that.

We dont always hear about women as much, so I just sort of wanted to showcase some women who are from here, had lived here for a long time, and just wanted to tell their story, explains first-time author Haley Healey.

Healey says she was inspired to write On Their Own Terms: True Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island after learning the story of backcountry gardener, wilderness entrepreneur, and cougar bounty hunter Ada Anna Rae-Arthur, also known as Cougar Annie, during a recent visit to Tofino.

It just got me wondering if there were more women who had done pretty amazing things and when I started researching I found more and I wanted to share them.

Perhaps the most famous of the 17 women she writes about in the book is Emily Carr. As Healey explains, there are still new things we can learn about the beloved West Coast artist.

I was surprised to learn that she raised sheepdogs in her yard to support her art. She also had, like, a boarding house, she says. People may have heard of the boarding house, but I think fewer people had heard of her raising sheepdogs!

Healey hopes people are just as inspired by these capsule biographies as she was to write them.

I would love for people to feel inspired too and to maybe feel like they can tackle things that maybe they thought they couldnt before by seeing some of the really difficult hardships and thing that these women went through and still managed to thrive.

On Their Own Terms: True Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island is available from Heritage House Publishing. A sequel, entitled Flourishing and Free: More Stories of Trailblazing Women of Vancouver Island, is due next year.

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Meet Cougar Annie and the trailblazing women of Vancouver Island - News 1130