Australia mourns First Nations arts advocate, aged 66
Warning: This story contains the name and images of a deceased Indigenous person.
The passing of Rhoda Roberts, who died over the weekend at the age of 66 after battling a rare form of ovarian cancer, has deprived Australia of one of its most respected advocates of First Nations culture and representation.
Roberts has made a huge impact on many platforms as a theater producer, actor, podcaster, arts administrator, curator and journalist. SBS confirmed in a statement that the media was allowed to use the name and image of Roberts, who serves as the broadcaster’s first elder.
His work was so wide-ranging that it was difficult to even know what label to apply to his career. But by creating the Indigenous component of the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with choreographer Stephen Page, he helped bring his culture onto the global stage like never before. And by coining the phrase Welcome to the Country and helping to establish the practice, he ensured that it has remained part of a wider cultural practice ever since.
Speaking in 2021 to mark Roberts’ departure after 16 years as head of First Nations programming at the Sydney Opera House, Deborah Mailman described him as “my champion”.
“He was a champion for so many Indigenous artists,” Mailman added. “She’s an advocate, she’s a lobbyist, she grew up in the industry within a group of people who were really trying to change the landscape, changing the narrative of First Nations people and the way we look at Indigenous studies. She opened a lot of people’s minds about contemporary Indigenous studies.”
Roberts was a founding member of the Aboriginal National Theater Foundation in 1988. The following year, First in lineAn SBS current affairs program focusing on indigenous people and issues; he and co-host Michael Johnson are considered the first Indigenous presenters of prime-time TV in Australia.
He had come a long way since his childhood in Lismore, a town where “you were white or black,” as he told filmmaker Ivan Sen for his 2007 documentary. A Sister’s Love. “There was an invisible divide across the town, whether in pubs, cafes or the local swimming pool.”
He told Sen that he dreamed of becoming a writer when he was a child. But everything about his education seemed designed to defeat his ambition.
“Our career counselor told us we would never find a job, we would get pregnant while on duty, and so there was no point in training us,” she recalled. Every few months, Aboriginal students were removed from classes at Richmond River High School for strict scrutiny, including shoes, uniforms, attendance records and even hair. “If we had lice, God help us, then we could be taken from our mother and father.”
After leaving high school without graduating, Roberts entered nursing, a career that took her abroad. But after six years in London, he returned to Australia with “a greater awareness of the position of Aboriginal people in mainstream culture” and a determination to improve it.
His father, Frank, was a preacher and land rights activist in the Church of Christ. From him he inherited both a sense of right, wrong, and mission.
Frank Roberts spoke at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972, second only to Gough Whitlam. He came out on top in some quarters: ASIO labeled him the number one nuisance.
Years later, when Frank sat in the audience at a theater performance, he unceremoniously handed the baton to his daughter. “Now I see what you’re trying to do,” he told her. “The platform for us was the church. The platform for us Now is theatre. “This is where we can tell our stories, make our voices heard, and address imbalances.”
Arguably no platform was larger than the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics; Roberts and Page brought together a large number of Indigenous Australians from all corners of the country for a breathtaking opening scene that showcased traditional culture like never before.
Among them were women from remote Central Desert communities who had never been to a city before, let alone set foot on a global stage; They had to walk two hours to catch the bus, the train, and the plane from Alice Springs to Sydney.
“More than 1,200 artists were involved in a work that would have been impossible to realize on paper,” recalls David Atkins, the artistic director of the opening ceremony. “And Rhoda and Stephen managed to present with grace and magnificent artistry what remains one of the strongest parts of not only the Olympic ceremonies, but ceremonies and performances in general.”
Atkins remembers flying around Australia with Roberts and Page. He says it’s partly about finding talent. “But it was primarily a consultation process to get approval and see what each of these groups of elders and artists would want to contribute.”
Roberts considered his contribution to the Olympic ceremony one of his proudest achievements. But there was deep sadness: In July 1998, deep into the planning process, he was called away for a family emergency.
Her twin sister Lois had gone missing from Nimbin in northern NSW. Six months later, his body was found in the woods. Police determined that she had been held captive, tortured and sexually abused for more than a week before she was killed. His killers were never identified.
This loss never left him. Years later, she confessed to director Sen: “I feel sorry for my sister’s murder, but I think I need to put it in perspective. What about all this?” [Indigenous] The people killed on Ballina beach? Women who lost their children, husbands, mothers, grandmothers.”
Whatever pain he carried, Roberts never stopped trying to find a way to connect with this “invisible chasm” on stage, on television or radio, in podcasts or in public Welcome to Country ceremonies.
Actor and filmmaker Wayne Blair played the MC and Governor-General Sam Mostyn was among the speakers at the memorial event held at the Sydney Opera House in December, with the information that Roberts had stage 4 cancer and would soon move to Dreaming.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute via video message to Roberts’ “generosity, mentorship, courage and unwavering commitment to truth-telling and cultural sovereignty” and acknowledged his “extraordinary career and paths”. [she] engraved for all who follow.”
Following his death on Saturday, tributes began to flow.
“Rhoda’s extraordinary gift to all of us is her generous spirit,” said Blackfella Films boss Darren Dale. “He was truly a trailblazer and instilled in all of us to dream bigger, be bolder, and be bolder. I am extremely grateful to have known him.”
Producer David Jowsey of Bunya Productions said: “Rhoda believed in the power and impact that art had to offer, not only to tell history and express cultural creativity, but to tell the stories of First Nations peoples and communities for the benefit of wider Australia. “She had a beautiful presence and was a force for good, but Rhoda also bore the pain of the unsolved murder of her twin sister, Lois.”
On social media, former colleagues from SBS and the creative industries also joined in celebrating Roberts as a fierce advocate for her people and the arts.
Actor Tasma Walton said she was “an extraordinary, inspiring woman with so much talent”; Talent agency boss Mark Morrissey said she was “one of the nicest, most honest and tough women I’ve ever met.”
She is a musical theater star and said, “What a woman, what a voice for our people, for our arts, and for singing women and men around the world.” Australian Idol said winner Casey Donovan. “The impact Aunt Rhoda has had on me and my career over the last 25 years has absolutely changed my life and my career.”
Donovan added that she was “an extraordinary woman who died too soon” for so many.
Start your day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
