At the head of the sharing circle at TD Music Hall, with the rear-stage curtains open to the outside world, sage burning in the middle of the room, and flanked by elders Louise Lahache and Gerard Sagassige, Rhoda Roberts delivered the keynote address to officially start the conference portion of the 2025 International Indigenous Music Summit (IIMS), on June 3, 2025.
Something of an elder herself, Roberts – a Widjabul woman of the Bundjalung nation – has spent decades uplifting Indigenous music and culture as a journalist; a celebrated actor; the first Aboriginal presenter on prime-time television in Australia; a festival creator and director; the former head of Indigenous programming at the Sydney Opera House; a recipient of the Order of Australia; and an always-compelling storyteller.
Some excerpts from Roberts’s keynote address:
“Our elders provided a place of self-reflection, and lived experiences, increasing our own empowerment. We need to reclaim and stand in that strength. Many of us are still facing being devalued, having our heritage questioned, or being told to just simply move on from the past. These experiences, for many of us, are real and ongoing.”
“United as a global collective, with a vision of safeguarding our precious knowledge, connecting and re-connecting, time over time, hearing the challenges, we will find the solutions, and we will ensure the authenticity and control of our IP [intellectual property] is in our hands. And we’ll simply be unstoppable.”
“Culture is everything, and everything is inter-connected”
“The duty you [musicians] carry to represent language groups is not taken lightly. You all carry stories, the songs and the spirit of our Indigeneity, our ways of being and knowing… It’s wonderful that our musicians, our instrument-makers, our songwriters, our storytellers, knowledge holders, are all mobilizing the music industry. It’s more than music. We’re stepping into spaces with purpose, energy, and our united cultural strength… We are building a narrative in the music industry that reflects our stories, our values, our sovereignty, and it’s on our terms.”
“Why would anyone choose to enter an industry marked by competition, frustration, burnout, systemic exclusion, and unsafe spaces…? And all the while carrying the weight of that inherited, inter-generational trauma. And the impact of mistrust due to those historical injustices… When we look across our communities, our homelands, our states, our territories, we see something powerful: a strengthening of our cultural ecosystems, both tangible and intangible. This is where our resilience lives, and where our voices continue to rise… Our economic impact, in all our countries – through art, tourism, and culture – brings in billions of dollars. We need to tell our tourism industries.”
“As much as there was outlawing of our language and ceremonies during the last 200 years, there was this government policy, we knew culture is everything, and everything is inter-connected. Our music is not just about our visibility, it’s about recognition and respect, with a unique cultural voice. We are the first peoples, and with the right branding, and equal support across the sector, [our culture] holds the power to drive economic independence and long-term sustainability.”
The International Indigenous Music Summit continues through June 6th.