Rebecca is first Aboriginal Rhodes scholar The first Aboriginal Australian to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship is 23-year-old Rebecca Richards. Rebecca Richards is a member of the Adnyamathanha and Barngarla peoples of South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, the homeland of her late father Leroy Richards. “This is a great honour, I’m very excited,” Rebecca told Aboriginal Way.
Above: Breakdancer Jason Campbell.
Above: Dancer Medika Thorpe.
In September Rebecca will travel to Oxford University to study for a Doctor of Philosophy in Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. “The study at Oxford will open up my opportunities. I will be recognised as an anthropologist not just in Australia, but internationally. “That’s very exciting.
Rebecca grew up in South Australia’s Riverland on her family’s fruit block, attending Winkie Primary School and Glossop High School.
After studying anthropology at the University of Adelaide, she is now an Indigenous cadet project officer with the National Museum of Australia.
She has custodial responsibilities for her family site, Pukatu and other women’s sites in the Flinders Ranges.
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for study at Oxford University. It is considered the most prestigious scholarship in the world and was named after Cecil Rhodes. It is awarded on the basis of academic achievement and strength of character.
“I am very passionate about native title and about the repatriation of Indigenous objects, languages and associated knowledge to Indigenous communities,” she said. She said she first became interested in anthropology when at 14, she did some field work in the Flinders Ranges.
Some other notable Australians who have been awarded the scholarship include Bob Hawke, Kim Beazley, Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Geoffrey Robertson and Howard Florey.
Above: Healthy tucker at the Thumbs Up barbecue.
Above: Rebecca Richards, first Aboriginal Rhodes scholar.
Aboriginal Way, May 2011 11
