Celebrated performer whose songs, including Took the Children Away, revealed the suffering of Australia’s stolen generations
Framlingham mission near Warrnambool, in south-west Victoria, he was taken from his parents, Nellie Austin and Archie Roach Sr, at the age of “three or four”, along with his two sisters, and raised in Melbourne by a white family, Alex and Dulcie Cox, who had moved to Australia from Scotland. They were told that his parents had died in a house fire and were, he said, “blameless, as far as I’m concerned. They were used.
He was lucky to survive. It took time for him to find his sister, and as he explained in his memoir, he spent years as an alcoholic, drinking in the parks and “empties” of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. He suffered from epilepsy, spent time in hospital and in prison, charged with vagrancy, and attempted suicide, after a failed bid to dry out.
after being encouraged by an uncle to write about his own experiences. He sang it on a community radio station, then in pubs and on TV, and came to the notice of one of Australia’s best-known singer-songwriters, Paul Kelly.Photograph: Scott Oates/The Guardian. It was at first greeted by silence, said Roach, “and then the clapping started. It sounded like rain that starts with a pitter-patter and builds up and becomes a downpour. It was the most amazing experience I had ever had.
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