Proud Widjabul Wia-bal woman Rhoda Roberts named as SBS inaugural Elder In Residence

An actor, performer, journalist, presenter, arts executive and senior leader at NORPA who grew up in Lismore has been granted a new honour.

Rhoda Roberts AO has been named SBS’s inaugural Elder In Residence.

Proud Widjabul Wia-bal woman from the Bundjalung nation, Rhoda Roberts, has been named SBS’s inaugural Elder In Residence.

SBS Managing Director James Taylor has announced the appointment of Ms Roberts in a role that will see her provide cultural guidance to the management and leadership teams working across the SBS & NITV.

Roberts addressed SBS staff via email and spoke of the moment as being one of “coming home”.

“Our leaders remind us that everything is written twice – once on the ground and then once in the sky. I see this position a little like this philosophy – one for the organisation and one for our audiences,” Roberts wrote.

Roberts, who grew up in Lismore, is an actress, performer, journalist, presenter, arts executive and First Nations advocate.

She currently lives on the Northern Rivers with her family.

A family of trailblazers, in 1934 her grandfather, Frank Roberts Snr walked out of the Cabbage Tree Island mission, South Ballina, with three of the main families, and moved to Lismore.

The daughter of preacher Frank Roberts Jnr and her mother Muriel Roberts, in July 1998, her twin sister Lois went missing from Nimbin. Her body was found six months later at Whian Whian State Forest.

Rhoda Roberts, as presenter of SBS TV show Vox Populi, was the first Aboriginal presenter on national television.

Roberts has a long connection with SBS.

She became the first Indigenous presenter on prime-time television in 1989 when she fronted SBS’s documentary show First in Line.

The young woman was later a presenter and journalist on SBS’s current affairs program Vox Populi.

In 1993 she became host of Deadly Sounds, a weekly Indigenous radio program that ran for 21 years.

In 1995 she was appointed director of the arts festivals associated with the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Rhoda Roberts and Mark Ella Picture: Supplied

The Bundjalung woman has a stellar career in the arts, including as Head of First Nations Programming for the Sydney Opera House, curator of Northern Territory festival Parrtjima, director of Boomerang Festival at Bluesfest, among many others.

She also created The Dreaming, an Indigenous arts festival which ran in Sydney from 1997 then relocated to Woodford, Queensland, in 2004.

In 2017 she was awarded a Sue Nattrass Award for outstanding achievement in live performance at the Helpmann Awards.

Rhoda Roberts, head of indigenous programming at the Sydney Opera House. Pic Renee Nowytarger / The Australian.

Last March, Roberts was confirmed as Creative Director First Nations at Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), where she co-devised works such as Three Brothers, inspired by a Bundjalung creation story.

The initial term of the Elder will be a one-year period, with the option to extend for a further two years.