[1] Her father, the writer and magazine editor Masotsha Mike Hove, was elected in 1953 as a special representative to the first Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland parliament.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Sekai completed a Master of Science (Agricultural Journalism) at the University of Wisconsin (Madison), and worked in a number of volunteer and paid roles including: Sekai was a founder of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Australia in the late 1960s, she helped to establish the Murrawina Child Care Centre in Redfern, and she worked actively with the Aboriginal community on the land rights campaign.

Sekai made a Supreme Court challenge against the government's action and won, making history with the human rights case 'Sekai Holland and Others vs the Ministry of Labour, Social Welfare and Public Service'.

In 1998–99 Sekai became convinced that development through NGO activity was impossible under the Mugabe government, and with Morgan Tsvangirai, she started the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as a real alternative to one-party rule.

With elections scheduled for the following year, a brutal campaign of terror was underway to intimidate the increasingly popular MDC from participating in the political process.

Tipped off that her life was at risk, she escaped back to Australia (where the Melbourne Herald had printed her obituary) and continued her anti-Apartheid and Zimbabwean independence work.

Sekai is negotiating with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for Midlands state University to partner with two Australian institutions; NSW Service for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) to establish a similar mental health wellness institution for survivors of political violence and Exodus Foundation which has appropriate rehabilitation programmes for refugees and internally displaced persons to establish similar grassroots based community centres to receive and train returnee refugees, internally displaced persons and stateless persons for their re integrations into communities.

[9] Professor Stuart Rees, Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation said, 'In addition to her work for the education of rural women and her founding of Australia's anti-Apartheid movement fifty years ago, Sekai Holland has been a significant leader of non-violent, democracy campaigns, and is a key figure in her country's national dialogue on how to heal the deep wounds of social conflict.

'[10] The Sydney Peace Prize jury's citation reads: Sekai Holland: for a lifetime of outstanding courage in campaigning for human rights and democracy, for challenging violence in all its forms and for giving such astute and brave leadership for the empowerment of women.

[10] Sometimes perceived as controversial, the prize's previous recipients have included Professor Muhammad Yunus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson (former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and former President of Ireland), Dr Hanan Ashrawi, former Governor General Sir William Deane, Australia's 'Father of Reconciliation' Patrick Dodson, the Indian novelist and human rights campaigner Arundhati Roy and the distinguished American academic and activist, Professor Noam Chomsky.