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Awaken: March 7

Stan Grant speaks to musician Archie Roach about his career as an indigenous artist.

On NITV’s Awaken, Stan Grant speaks to musician Archie Roach about his career as an indigenous artist.

After a career that has nearly spanned three decades, Archie has recently launched his tenth studio album, ‘Let Love Rule’.

“I wanted to write about love, or a willingness to love all people,” says Archie. “We are closing ourselves off and not letting people in. And not just in the sense of not letting them into the country, but not letting them into our hearts, into our minds. Many of the songs on the album are really a call for understanding,” explains Archie.

When introducing Archie on Awaken, Stan Grant describes him as a man who has sung the song of Indigenous people, from the hardships, the love and the joy; he sings what it’s like to be an Indigenous person in Australia.

“Archie, you’ve had an extraordinary career that has reached audiences both here in Australia and around the world, and you are continuing to tell the story of our people through your latest album.

“A lot of your songs start with a sense of place don’t they?” asks Stan.

Archie replies, “Yeah, it’s important that you find that sense of place, I’ve always loved the bush, and I’ve known it since I was a kid. I believe that there are some things that are in-born or innate or even genetic, that we’re not quite sure of as kids but later in life we understand what it is, that being what we’ve loved and what is Aboriginal.”

Much of Archie’s music refers to his upbringing. He and his sister were taken from his parents at a young age and sent to a Salvation Army orphanage. They were eventually placed with foster families, however Archie changed foster families twice before becoming part of the Cox family, who had emigrated from Scotland to Melbourne.

When discussing growing up with his foster family, Archie says, “The first time that someone called me black was when I took a mate home, I’d known him for years. I took him home to meet Mum and Dad, the Cox’s, and we were walking back to his place after, we mucked around a bit, and he posed the question, ‘Archie how come your parents are white?’ I said ‘What are you talking about?’ He said ‘Well you’re black’. And that’s the first time I’d ever heard that. There was no sense of me being black or the Cox’s being white. It was a family.”

Archie’s love of music was actually born from his foster sister teaching him how to play the piano as a child. It continued to grow as he began jamming with other Aboriginal musicians as an adult. His big break came however, when he was featured on the front of Time magazine when a writer came out to Australia to cover the Olympics. Throughout his career he has been awarded with multiple ARIA awards and even opened the stage for the likes of Paul Kelly, Tracy Chapman, Patti Smith, Billy Bragg and Suzanne Vega.

Getting on to the topic of music and his legendary career, Stan asks, “It’s been over 25 years since your first album, what is it like to go back to those songs that had taken a lifetime to write and then were captured in that moment, and sing them again? How does it feel to reconnect with those things that, are from such a long time ago, but are still a part of you?”

Archie explains, “It’s like they’ve grown as I’ve grown through the years, I feel like I know a lot more now. Some of them were just babies when I wrote them and now they are older, it’s like they are older friends, they’ve been with me for a long time, 27 years! They sit comfortably with me, and performing them now is like conversing with an old friend.”

Updated: 9.00pm on Tuesday March 7 on NITV.

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