With her sisters Cessa and Ina, Rita was a member of the Mills Sisters, a Torres Strait Islander musical group. From the 1970s to their retirement in 1995, they brought the music of the Torres Strait to the world stage. Rita continued a successful solo career. Raised on Naghir Island, in the Torres Strait, they moved to Thursday Island where they began singing at local pubs. They travelled throughout Australia performing at World Expo 1988 in Brisbane, Woodford Festival in Queensland, and Victoria. They travelled overseas to London and Paris. Their repertoire covered over 200 songs from Island love songs, country and western, blues, contemporary and reggae which they sang in English, Samoan, Hawaiian, Papua New Guinean and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
