The 2025 IMPACT Award winners have been announced by PAC Australia in a ceremony at Darwin Ski Club during the Australian Performing Arts Exchange (APAX).

The winner of the awards’ highest honour, the Wendy Blacklock Industry Legend Award, is Rhoda Roberts.

Wendy Blacklock Industry Legend Award winner Rhoda Roberts performing My Cousin Frank. Photo © TJ Garvie

A Widjabul Wia-bul woman, Roberts is a director, performer, author and executive who co-founded QPAC’s Clancestry, Sydney’s Festival of the Dreaming and the Aboriginal National Theatre Trust.

She has also directed Garma Festival, Parrtjima Festival and Boomerang Festival, and was Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House.

Roberts is currently presenting her play My Cousin Frank at Wodonga’s HotHouse Theatre after performances in Adelaide and Melbourne.

“Woven throughout a career traversing performing arts, media and major events, shaping festivals and pioneering roles in major cultural institutions, [Roberts’] leadership and advocacy forged the pathway for the presentation of First Nations work to be presented as essential practice,” said PAC Australia Executive Director Katherine Connor.

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