SI Joondalup – First Female Indigenous Rhodes Scholar Congratulated – April 2011

Members of Soroptimist International of Joondalup congratulated Rebecca Richards who has made history by becoming the first Indigenous Rhodes Scholar. Rebecca studied anthropology at Adelaide University and will study a master of Philosophy at Oxford University next September. President Kate says that it is wonderful news for the Australian Community. Her interest in anthropology started when she was a student and did field work in the Flinders Ranges. Her studies were later used in the Native Title determination of those lands. She is passionate about the repatriation of Indigenous objects, languages and associated knowledge to Indigenous communities. Rebecca grew up in the South Australian Riverlands and has custodial responsibility for her family site Pukatu and other women’s sites in the remote Flinders Ranges. Soroptimist International of Joondalup members can identify with this great moment because they inducted one of the first indigenous members in the nineties.