Audrey Felicia Rebera was born in Colombo on the 14th of October in 1933. Her father was Alan Rebera and mother, Felicia Deffry Rebera. Audrey was the eldest child in the family, with two younger siblings- a brother and a sister.
Audrey received her education at Presbyterian Girl’s School and Methodist College in Dehiwala. In 1956 she entered
the University of Peradeniya but left, after completing the first phase of a bachelor’s degree to join the Sri Lanka Central Bank. She worked there for 13 years and joined the Christian Workers Fellowship, which laid the foundation for her social activism. Becoming the president of its youth movement in 1960, Audrey further refined her thinking along the lines of ushering in social change. She also became a leader within her youth community.
The 1970’s marked a turning point in the country’s politics with the rise of youth militancy but also the start of another significant social discourse. That was, a dialogue on the unique challenges faced by women within Sri Lankan society. In 1976, she helped found the first autonomous feminist organization in Sri Lanka, Voice of Women with Kumari Jayawardena and other fellow travelers. Her feminism was strongly influenced by liberation theology as she went onto work with the Student Christian Movement, the Ceylon Workers Fellowship and was the secretary of the Women’s Commission of the National Christian Council for a decade from the mid 1980s.
Audrey’s commitment towards strengthening the women’s movement in the country and especially, her sensitivity towards the plight of women in the Estate community is well recognized. Audrey played a lead role in forging women’s coalitions – both, the Women’s Action Committee, which was a coalition formed in 1981, comprising of progressive women’s organisatons, and the network Mothers and Daughters of Lanka, established in 1989, which worked committedly for a political solution to the ethnic conflict. Her work in 1978 on the condition of plantation workers, led her to help form the movement for Inter Racial Justice and Equality which led to her work for a political solution to the ethnic conflict, and the solidarity and support she gave to minority communities throughout her life.
Audrey was wonderful humanist and a pillar of strength and support to countless activists in the struggle for human rights, self-determination, and women’s rights. Her home was always a place of sage refuge for those from the North and East as it was to activists at threat in the South. Her quiet work whether for the rights of workers, families of the disappeared or faith-based communities was often unknown and unheralded but constant and true.
We at WMC have been privileged to work with her form our inception and mourn her loss of a dear friend and colleague. May she Rest in Peace.