21/03/2026
Vale Rhoda Roberts AO - an immense loss for our community and for the nation. Her impact, leadership, and cultural legacy will be felt for generations. Our sincere condolences to her family, friends, and all who loved her.
Nearly ten years ago, Rhoda Roberts gave a beautiful speech at the Older Women’s Network NSW conference. You could tell she was a woman of integrity, creativity and strength. Everything that is being written about her enormous contribution to the arts, to the celebration of First Nations creativity, and to compassionate leadership was evident in that afternoon she spent with us.
However, what stayed with us most was something quieter. She spoke of the deep sadness she carried from losing her twin sister to an act of incomprehensible violence. In that personal grief sat a much larger story - one of systemic discrimination that First Nations women endure. And of the well-documented failures of institutions, including policing, to take violence against First Nations women seriously.
The loss of Rhoda Roberts is not only the loss of an extraordinary cultural leader, storyteller and advocate. We feel in our hearts the loss of a woman who carried both brilliance and grief, who used her platform to elevate others while holding the weight of personal and collective trauma.
To honour Rhoda Roberts is to do more than celebrate her legacy in the arts. It is to carry forward her truth, and to refuse to look away from our collective responsibility to end violence against all women, including First Nations women.
