Media Release by The Hon Jenny Macklin MP

First Indigenous Australian awarded Rhodes Scholarship

The Australian Government today welcomed the announcement of the first Indigenous Australian to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in its 108-year history.

Rebecca Richards is a member of the Adnyamathanha and Barngarla peoples of the Flinders Ranges and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) student at the University of Adelaide.

She was awarded an Australia-At-Large Rhodes Scholarship to study for a Masters of Philosophy in Material Anthropology and Museum Ethnography.

Rebecca is a remarkable young woman and a great inspiration to all Australians.

At just 23 years of age, Rebecca has already accomplished so much. Her passion for Indigenous history and culture will help document the extraordinary depth of Indigenous understanding of country.

Rebecca has also been a Native Title mediation community representative, Aboriginal Legal Rights intern, and delegate to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues in New York in 2009.

She is currently employed as an Indigenous Cadet Officer with the National Museum of Australia, and just recently completed a research internship at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

I wish her the best of luck in her studies and future endeavours.