I’ve turned Rhoda’s story into a 4 part story because it’s a big life and we would have needed a week to tell it all. Normally after interviewing I can edit it right back but I didn’t want to leave anything out as it’s an amazing life of an amazing woman.’
RHODA ROBERTS – Continued (Part 2/4)
“Once I graduated I wanted to travel. When I talked about wanting to be a Writer, my mother was like..’Why? you’re a Registered Nurse, you have this great career.’ She had dreams I would move home and work for Lismore Base but I wanted to travel as well. I went to Hayman Island and got a waitressing job. I only lasted a week because on my day off a woman on the beach had a Cardiac Arrest and I dealt with her. The Manager was watching and wanted me to be the Nurse on the Island. I knew how to intubate and put cannulas in after working in Accident and Emergency so that was a good position. Instead of living in a dormitory I was given a cottage so I saved a lot of money and went overseas.
I nursed in London and the year I was there they performed the first Heart and Lung transplant. It was an incredible teaching hospital. I worked on the wards and eventually I got a job at Westminster which is right next to Soho. It was a very busy A&E which was right up my sleeve. While I was there I attained a second certificate for A&E.
Obviously I thought nursing was my thing but serendipity, I went to a dinner party and one of the girls was working on a film that she was coming back to Australia to produce. It was The Fringe Dwellers. I remember she was saying…’We are having trouble casting because there are no Aboriginal actors.’ I think I even got up on the table and said, What are you talking about? What about Justine Saunders, Bob Maza and rattled off all these names. By the time I got back to Australia I got an audition. They were very honest. They said, ‘You don’t look Aboriginal so how can we give you this role? We want to sell to the European market.’ Bruce Beresford said I was really good so I got an Agent and that was the catalyst which moved me into the Arts. I kept nursing to get my Diploma and then I left Nursing. I now have a University equivalent with my Registered Nursing so Dad would be very happy.
I worked in Florence, Greece and India with my Nursing and when I came back to Australia I got into the Arts whilst working at Manly Hospital so I could pay my way. I did some acting and worked for a few theatre companies and then a dear colleague Justine Saunders with Lydia Miller and the late Vivian Walker, Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s (Kath Walker) second son, we set up a theatre company and Nanna Walker was our Patron. It was called the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust. We really cut our teeth on that I guess.
I was still working at Radio Redfern and I did this Doco. ABC heard it, loved it and offered me a job. I got into Radio National and a position came up with SBS in Journalism. I’d been doing different courses so I applied for it. Because I was acting as well, I thought I’ll just play a Journalist for the audition. I got the job but then I had to be myself so there was a lot of confidence building. So in the late 80s I got that opportunity of being the first Aboriginal to host a prime time current affairs program in Australia. My parents didn’t get SBS here so I had to send VHS tapes home. Dad had boxes of the bloody things.
We had started some events and festivals at the theatre company so I was very fortunate that the Olympics approached me to do a festival. Every Olympics has the Cultural Olympian. It’s four years in the lead up where you build your arts and culture alongside the sport to attract visitors and so forth. They wanted me to do the first one. Everyone was saying the Olympics can be used as a tool to show the world the inequality here so at the time people were hesitant about being involved in the Olympics. Anyway they came six times and I kept saying no. Anyway I went to a meeting and I realised if they didn’t get me they were going to get some old white male who wouldn’t know what we would want. I accepted the role and then my whole world changed to event management. I was very lucky to get that position and work globally. It was challenging but fantastic and I was able to achieve a lot.
Back in the mid 80s, a mate of mine, Gavin Jones said, ‘Let’s make a National radio show but get corporate sponsorship and make it our own.’ It was very entrepreneurial thinking, I was all about just giving back to the community (laughs). We started a show called Deadly Sounds. It went for 21 years and went across Australia and to the Pacific. During that time we set up an organisation called Vibe Australia where we did a whole heap of different things. My big thing was, if you want my radio show, in return I want our own AFI’s so we started The Deadly Awards and it just grew. By that stage I was sitting on the board of the Opera House saying, Where are the Aboriginal residencies so it took two years but we persuaded them to have a resident company, Bangarra Dance Theatre and to have an annual community event which became The Deadly Awards. Great legacies and successes and weirdly little did I realise that by 2010 I’d be there working on events and then they created a position for me as the head of Indigenous Programming. Little seeds get planted.
That night at the Olympics watching the Australian audience, I thought OMG they actually do want us. It was really interesting because prior to the Olympics it was…Cathy Freeman, a young Aborigine from blah…The night we won it was, Our Cathy. I went OK, they’re ready.
I continued the dreaming festival which connected me internationally and so many artists got their opportunity of performing in festivals. I saw this young Musician. She had dreadlocks and she had the best vocal quality. She was singing this song about her Grandma’s story. Gav and I were sitting there with the tears flowing so I approached her and said that is a play, that is a documentary. So they came down to see us so they didn’t know how to do it. My husband at the time was an Actor, he’s passed away now but Bill and I showed them how to write a treatment and a scope for a doco series. With the Olympics I had all this money to commission so I commissioned her story as a play. She hadn’t done any acting so management were saying it’s a huge risk. I said, trust me, this kid is amazing. We called the play Box the Pony and the young girl was Leah Purcell. Most people wouldn’t even realise that she can sing. That song was called Run Daisy Run and it was the premise for the play. Leah went on to tour with the play and now of course she is making her own films. Festivals to me are so important because it can create opportunity.
Just before our 21st my sister had a serious car accident. She was unconscious for 10 weeks and had to learn to walk, talk and do everything again. She had a serious brain injury. By the time I got married Lois had a little boy Charlie and then she had a little girl. Mum called me and said, ‘Welfare are going to come and take this kid, you should think of the Kinship Program. Lois wants you to raise this child.’ I’m like, I’m never having children, no way! Bill and I sat up all night talking it over. The next day I was in David Jones buying the nursery. Lois had the baby and 3 days later I was back in Sydney with this baby. Bill and I raised Emily. Charlie was being raised by Mum and Dad. Lois loved her children. They wouldn’t have known. She’d see Charlie, kiss him goodnight, go home then come back in the morning.”