TOOK THE CHILDREN AWAY BY ARCHIE ROACH

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywDT6yHMmo

Archie Roach

Archie Roach (born 1956, Mooroopna, Victoria) is an Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist. He survived a turbulent upbringing that molded his development into a powerful voice for Indigenous Australians. The musician is a storyteller in the tradition of his ancestors, and a nationally popular and respected artist.

Roach's song Took the Children Away was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013. Also in 2013 he won a Deadly Award for Lifetime Contribution to Healing the Stolen Generations as well as for Album of the Year.

Established in 2007, the Sounds of Australia is the National Film and Sound Archive's selection of sound recordings with cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance, which inform or reflect life in Australia.

What is the song about?

This song tells of the forced separation of children from their parents, as was done to thousands of Aboriginal children during the implementation of the government’s assimilation policies. Archie’s life journey, from institutions to homelessness and alcoholism, has fuelled a life of prolific song writing. At a young age, Archie was forcibly removed from his family as part of the Stolen Generation of Aboriginal children. Many Aboriginal people identify strongly with the heartbreaking story carried by this song.

Why did Archie write this song?

http://www.studiotv.com.au/arts-news/archie-roach-sings-took-the-children-away/

What the song means The song tells the impact of how the indigenous peoples felt, after the

government forcibly removed the Stolen Generation from their homes.

The Stolen Generation were the indigenous children such as Archie, who were forcibly removed from their families.

Archie describes how difficult it was to grow up being raised by strangers, even though his biological parents were completely able to raise him.

This song explains that it was not only the children of the Stolen Generation who have been facing difficulties due to the governments actions, but also the children of the children, and the grandchildren of the children that were taken away.

Archie has stated that every time he sings the song, he lets a little bit of his pain go. The lyrics in the song that Archie has produced convince the listener to truly hear, and also encourages the listeners to become social activists by presenting the need for change, improvement and motivation on a large scale.

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Looking to the future Archie is using his music in order to heal not only his own pain, but also

anyone else who has been affected by the government ripping indigenous children away from their parents.

Archie had the belief that you can make a difference and that you have the power to do something about an issue and that is the heart of creating a change for the better.

He wants the damage which has been done to families such as his own to be addressed.

In Archie’s words “Pain can also bring about change in one’s life for the better, we can choose to ignore the Pain until it becomes unbearable or we can do something. I used to think that letting go of the Pain was the only way of getting better but that may not be necessarily so.”

Roach also notes that as a result of the trauma of being forcibly removed from his family in some ways resulted in him becoming a musician and states, “If it hadn’t been for that happening to me, I probably wouldn’t have been a musician. We are the sum total of our lives, of that’s happened to us. A lot of things are sad but I would never ask to be different. Terrible things happen because of misunderstanding, but I know I would be a poorer person if I had not been through these things.”

References Archie Roach Took The Children Away [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywDT6yHMmo Archie Roach sings Took the Children Away | STUDIO [Video file]. (n.d.).

Retrieved from http://www.studiotv.com.au/arts-news/archie-roach-sings-took-the-children-away/

Archie Roach still a powerful voice for Indigenous justice | Culture | theguardian.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2014/jan/23/archie-roach-still-a-powerful-voice-for-indigenous-justice

Archie Roach - Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.archieroach.com.au/#!/page_Album

Music and Politics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicandpolitics/archive/2010-2/barney-mackinlay.html