Obituary: Archie Roach (1956-2022)

Australia’s most treasured Aboriginal singer-songwriter-storyteller Archie Roach died on July 30, age 66. He was a member of the ‘Stolen Generations,’ those Indigenous children who, under Australian government policy from 1905 through to the 1970s were forcibly removed from their parents and put in institutions and foster homes, in a misguided attempt to assimilate them into white society.

Brought up on the Framlingham mission near Warrnambool, Victoria, Roach was 15 when he found out that his birth mother had only recently passed away and that he was actually one of seven siblings. Leaving home to seek them out, he spent years battling homelessness and alcoholism in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. At 17 he met another young homeless Indigenous teenager – Ruby Hunter – at a Salvation Army centre, and as a result of their relationship he was able to turn his life around.

Finding solace in music, Roach began to focus on writing his own songs, and started performing and recording with Ruby, Boosted by support from iconic Australian musician-producer Paul Kelly, Archie’s debut 1990 album Charcoal Lane, included his best-known song, the plaintive ‘Took the Children Away’. With his heartbreaking lyrics, soulful voice and early follow-up albums Jamu Dreaming (1993) and Looking for Butter Boy (1997) Archie quickly found a ready audience and the impressive couple established their careers together.

Following Ruby’s untimely death in 2010, Archie first suffered a stroke, then endured a subsequent battle with lung cancer and surgery, but was eventually able to recuperate well enough to continue performing. Remaining hopeful, positive and inspirational through his later years, his more recent albums included Into the Bloodstream, Let Love Rule, the bestselling 2019 album-memoir Tell Me Why and several retrospectives. The winner of numerous national awards, honours, and an Order of Australia Medal, in 2014 he established the Archie Roach Foundation to nurture meaningful and potentially life-changing opportunities for First Nations artists.

Archie’s sons, Amos and Eban Roach, have given permission for Archie’s name, image and music to be used, so that his legacy will continue to inspire.