Silva Mcleod was born on the small Tongan island of Vava‘u. She married Ken, an Australian, in a traditional Tongan ceremony before moving to Australia. As a woman of colour in Australia in the 1980s, she encountered frustration and racism, along with the guilt of leaving her Tongan family.

Silva had always dreamed of flying and with the encouragement of her husband she braved the barriers to enter the male-dominated field of aviation. She became the first Tongan female airline pilot and worked for the Royal Flying Doctor Service amongst other small airlines then Virgin International, flying B777s around the world.

Silva is a grandmother of seven and wrote Island Girl to Airline Pilot to inspire a new generation to dare to dream, no matter the odds.