The first Indigenous Australian to win a Rhodes Scholarship says the monument that glorifies an imperialist reactionary should be taken down to make an elite institution more accessible to people of colour.
As an Indigenous Australian woman, I am probably one of the last people Cecil Rhodes would expect a scholarship in his name to go to. Now 118 years after Rhodes’ death I have a platform as a Rhodes scholar.
I am in full support of taking down the Rhodes statue at Oriel College Oxford. I see the statue as different from the scholarship as the statue is largely a recognition of an individual, with his imperialist actions and reactionary views as well as his legacy, while the scholarship is an evolving and contemporary legacy that is about its contribution to people and society today.
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Rebecca Richards is an early career researcher at the South Australian Museum and a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Adelaide.
