WOMAD

Archie Roach

From Australia

Once in a lifetime an artist with an extraordinary spirit comes along. Archie Roach, a philosopher and storyteller in the tradition of his ancestors, relays and retells intimate real life stories through song that has touched the hearts and souls of audiences around the world.

Archie was born in Mooroopna, north Victoria in 1956, lived at Framlingham in southwestern Victoria and was forcibly removed from his family at an early age. He moved from foster home to foster home. In his teens a letter from a sister he didn't know sparked an angry search for his real identity and his place in the world.

During this time Archie met his lifelong partner and musical soul mate, Ruby Hunter, a Ngarrindjeri woman from South Australia who had also been forcibly removed from her family. The pair fell in love and started their own family. It is Ruby that Archie credits for the couple's decision to give up drinking and make a life for themselves. They went on to raise a family, which included two children of their own and three foster children plus a revolving door of children in need of shelter and refuge. Archie and Ruby continue to make music together.

In 1990 Archie Roach recorded his first record, Charcoal Lane. In doing so he reached out from the depth of hurt in Aboriginal Australia to remind mainstream Australia that despite the ongoing neglect and misery the connection to land and culture remain. The album contained 'Took the Children Away', a song that dealt with Archie's personal experience as one of what is now called the 'stolen generation' of Aboriginal people.

The album won two ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) awards and a Human Rights Award; the first time a Human Rights Award has been awarded to a songwriter. It was also in the US Rolling Stone's Top 50 albums for 1992 and achieved gold status in Australia. In 1993 Archie released Jamu Dreaming, which was nominated for an ARIA award in 1994 and was in Australia's Top 40. Released in July 1997 his third album, Looking for Butter Boy, was recorded on Archie's traditional land at Port Fairy in southwestern Victoria. This album won three ARIA awards in 1998.

In 2007 after a long absence Archie released a sublime but powerful new album, Journey, with a collection of songs he describes as a reaffirmation of identity, country, beliefs and spirits. Many of the songs were inspired during a journey Archie took with English actor, Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father, Brassed Off) and national indigenous leader and Yawuru man, Patrick Dodson. They set out in the footsteps of a young indigenous man, Louis Johnson, over the troubled landscape of modern Aboriginal Australia in the hope of reawakening discussion of indigenous issues and of Reconciliation.

Aside from his recorded offerings and many awards, Archie has also performed with some of the top names in the entertainment business including Tracy Chapman, Joan Armatrading, Patti Smith, Suzanne Vega, Billy Bragg, Bob Dylan, Paul Kelly and Crowded House.

This year Archie Roach was awarded a NAIDOC National Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes the profound contribution that Archie has made to Australia.
(Biography supplied by artist management-2009)
http://www.archieroach.com.au