Rhoda Roberts: ‘Dad believed if you changed one person’s mind it would have a ricochet effect’

The Aboriginal journalist, actor and storyteller on her family of Olympians and activists, a terrible loss and the power of persistence

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It is where the river bends at its widest point that Rhoda Roberts comes to sit. She looks out at the water and thinks about all the generations of her family who have sat here. Once they were shaded by great cedar trees. “The river was our lifeline, our bloodline. It gave us everything. I come here and look at the river all the time.”

Above us the traffic rattles and clanks over the Ballina Street bridge, a crossing that was once made by canoe.