Miriam Bridelia Soljak (née Cummings; 15 June 1879 – 28 March 1971) was a pioneering New Zealand feminist, communist, unemployed rights activist and supporter of family planning efforts.

She was involved in health issues which included child welfare, family planning and contraception, infant and maternal mortality, and sex education.

She also strove to support indigenous communities, becoming involved in the protection of Māori women and girls and Samoan independence movement, though she was a pacifist.

He was an immigrant from Dalmatia, at the time part of the Austrian Empire, who had little education or fluency in English, but was prepared to work at various jobs to support the family.

[1][2] Resuming her teaching at Pukaru in 1910, Soljak was provided with nursery care for her children because of her skill working with Māori students.

When Soljak gave birth to her fourth child in 1912, she left teaching and the family moved to Tauranga, where Peter worked on various construction and transport projects.

Soon after World War I ended, when her seventh child, Paul, was born in 1919, Soljak was refused a bed in the maternity home and told it was because she was an enemy alien and had forfeited her nationality by marrying a foreigner.

[11] New Zealand introduced a measure to adopt the common code of British nationality in 1914, but passage was postponed by the outbreak of the war.

[1] Soljak led a public fight, alongside Elizabeth McCombs, against the nationality laws, speaking to Parliament[20][21] and publishing articles in the local papers on the unfairness of the legislation.

[22][23] With the break-up of the Austrian Empire, Peter chose to align his nationality with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia, in 1922.

[5][12][25] Working with allies like Emily Gibson and Peter Fraser, Soljak pressed for legislation for women to have independent nationality.

[1][8][26] When travelling abroad, she had to use a passport which was marked "New Zealand born, wife of an alien, now naturalised" and regularly register with the police.

[1] Because of the perception that many Māori women participated in prostitution, Soljak pressed for training to combat their economic hardships and the social ostracism they experienced in the workplace.

The following year, she sought a legal separation, but Peter refused to agree, denying Soljak alimony or child maintenance.

After she wrote an article in May, which was published in the Samoa Guardian protesting searches of the homes of independence leaders, she was ousted from the women's branch of the Labour Party.

[1][27] Using the pen name "Zealandia", she wrote a series of articles for The New Zealand Herald on the topic and attended a Wellington conference in 1934, advocating for birth control.

After the conference, she helped found the Sex Hygiene and Birth Regulation Society, renamed the New Zealand Family Planning Association in 1940.

[39] That year she continued her campaign against the nationality law, speaking on behalf of the United Women's Movement delegation to the Minister of Internal Affairs.

[1][41] She pressed for adequate housing for families, as most of the available units had been given to soldiers; for not allowing children's protection to lose focus because of attention to the war effort; and for peace initiatives.

She is remembered for her advocacy on behalf of working women and the Māori people, as well as her decades-long efforts to address gender discrimination in nationality laws.