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'Although not the first song about the enforced separation of Indigenous children from their families, Archie Roach’s song, based on his own life and experience, was released at a time when there was increasing public focus on the Stolen Generations. The significance of the song also resonated outside the Indigenous community with Roach winning ARIA Awards for Best Indigenous Release and Best New Talent in 1991. Took the Children Away received an international Human Rights Achievement Award, the first time that the award had been bestowed on a songwriter.'
Source: NFSA (https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/took-children-away-archie-roach). Sighted: 21/02/2019)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Students from Alice Perform in Language to Farewell Uncle Archie
2023
single work
column
— Appears in: Koori Mail , 11 January no. 792 2023; (p. 3) 'Pertame (Southern Arrernte) kids from Alice Springs have taken their endangered language on the road to perform at the recent Uncle Archie Roach State Memorial Service in Melbourne.' -
Archie Roach Song to Be Sung in Endangered Pertame Language at Singer's State Memorial
2022
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column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , December 2022;'An iconic song that references children from the Stolen Generations returning to family and country is lifting hopes that an endangered First Nations language could be revived.'
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Archie Roach's Work, Most Famously Took the Children Away, Was an Indictment of Australian History
2022
single work
obituary
(for Archie Roach
)
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , July 2022;'In 1992, Archie Roach gave an interview to a radio program looking into the recent death of a 19-year-old Indigenous man in Western Australia.'
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Archie Roach’s Took the Children Away: How One Heartbreaking Song Galvanised a Nation
2020
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column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 13 November 2020;'On its 30th anniversary, Archie Roach, Paul Kelly, Mick Dodson and others reflect on the ‘anthem for the stolen generations’ – and the legacy it left behind.'
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A Way Home
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Monthly , November no. 161 2019; (p. 68-70) “I’d thought it had just been me and my brothers and sisters who’d been taken,” writes Archie Roach in Tell Me Why (Simon & Schuster), his newly published memoir. The singer-songwriter is recalling one of the first times that he performed his best-known song, “Took the Children Away”, in public. It was 1988, and Roach and his partner, the late musician and artist Ruby Hunter, had travelled with their two sons to La Perouse – “the only place in Sydney where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have continuously lived from before 1788 to this day” – in order to join protests against the bicentennial celebrations. It was January 25, the day before the 200th anniversary of British invasion, and at the protest camp Hunter encouraged Roach to get onstage and play a song, in an effort to diffuse a growing argument among the crowd over the route of the next day’s march. “I didn’t sing to impress or to educate,” Roach writes, of his performance that day. “I sang to honour.” (Introduction)
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Red Ochre Award for Archie Roach
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: Arts Yarn Up , Autumn 2011; (p. 4-5) The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts has awarded The Red Ochre Award to singer/songwriter Archie Roach for his 25 year contribution to music. -
Getting in Touch with Australia's Heartbeat
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 27 March 2012; (p. 9) The 13th Message Sticks festival aims to open a path between cultures. -
Archie is Back to His Best
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 10 September 2012; (p. 10) -
Man, Animal, Other : The Intersections of Racism, Speciesism and Problematic Recognition within Indigenous Australia
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: NEW : Emerging Scholars in Australian Indigenous Studies , vol. 2-3 no. 1 2016-2017;'This paper explores the parallels between racism and speciesism, to argue that the colonial ‘othering’ and subjugation of Indigenous Australians reflects the domestication of farmed animals.' (Publication abstract)
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A Way Home
2019
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Monthly , November no. 161 2019; (p. 68-70) “I’d thought it had just been me and my brothers and sisters who’d been taken,” writes Archie Roach in Tell Me Why (Simon & Schuster), his newly published memoir. The singer-songwriter is recalling one of the first times that he performed his best-known song, “Took the Children Away”, in public. It was 1988, and Roach and his partner, the late musician and artist Ruby Hunter, had travelled with their two sons to La Perouse – “the only place in Sydney where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have continuously lived from before 1788 to this day” – in order to join protests against the bicentennial celebrations. It was January 25, the day before the 200th anniversary of British invasion, and at the protest camp Hunter encouraged Roach to get onstage and play a song, in an effort to diffuse a growing argument among the crowd over the route of the next day’s march. “I didn’t sing to impress or to educate,” Roach writes, of his performance that day. “I sang to honour.” (Introduction)