5 Minutes With Award-winning Arts Leader & Advocate, Rhoda Roberts AO

The award-winning arts leader, journalist, actor, advocate and all-round trailblazer is curator of the Parrtjima Festival. Held in the Red Centre this month, the event, like Roberts herself, shines a light on Aboriginal creative excellence.

My first job, before I could train as a registered nurse, was in the deli section at Woolworths in Lismore, NSW. We were engaging with local producers at a time when the dairy industry was facing huge tariffs and a lot of farms were closing. I didn’t realise it but getting that milk, watching the pricing change and seeing the domino effect of things like tariffs broadened my outlook.

I got my first lesson in leadership from my father [civil-rights campaigner Frank Roberts Jnr]. He was very politically active but very quiet; he just got on with it. His great quality was humility – “kindness and generosity, then action”. He said, “Everyone will talk about doing something but they don’t always do it. If you want to identify as a Widjabul Wiyebal woman, you’ve got an obligation and you need to get on with it.”

One of the first times I learnt to change gears was in 2015, when I launched DanceRites [a First Nations dance competition held on the Sydney Opera House forecourt]. I started off [pitching to sponsors] in quite a corporate way. Then I saw one of the philanthropic families get emotional at an image and I shifted my whole pitch. I showed young men crying into the sand circle and talked about the change in one community because it had won DanceRites. That sponsor remained for the next six years.

My first very difficult decision as a leader was when I brought in a First Nations colleague with experience in the creative sector to upskill as a producer. But he wasn’t the right fit. It led to an altercation with his senior producer and I had to reassess his employment. I was so focused on creating a supportive First Nations space that I’d provided more support to the agitator than to the non-Indigenous senior producer, who I deeply admired.

The first time I really used my influence to get people on board was in the lead-up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Many Indigenous communities were considering a boycott of the Games. As artistic director of the Festival of the Dreaming, I travelled the country asking custodians and leaders how they wanted to be represented on the world stage. At first there was resistance but we finally agreed that as host nations, Indigenous communities should guide the presentation of our culture.

Defining moment

“I was awarded an Order of Australia and I really struggled with it because it was the Queen's Honours. I didn't know I'd been nominated. I said, ‘I've done nothing.’ They showed me the nomination with all the testimonials from people I'd worked with. For me, that said, ‘Okay, accept this. These are your peers saying you deserve this honour and it's for the work that you’ve done.’”