The earth is a poorer place without Archie Roach walking across it. But we all know he’d be cruising along with Ruby again now, across the special place, their Dreaming river | LatimoreJack
Watching from backstage at Victoria’s Port Fairy Folk Festival earlier this year, I experienced yet another transcendent Archie Roach moment. Archie was performing a set list of his latest work to a reverential audience that had overfilled the festival’s largest marquee and crammed in at its wings, craning their necks and straining to witness the legendary Gunditjmara-Bundjalung songman.
Earlier, I’d asked him about the decision to include his oxygen cannula in the publicity shots and cover art for his latest single and anthology: “Well, that’s who I am today,” he shrugged. “That’s the reality of the situation.” I’d been invited down to Port Fairy by Archie and his manager and close friend Jill Shelton for the Folkie’s opening of the inaugural Archie Roach Foundation stage, and the launch of his new anthology,. I’d been asked to contribute something to the liner notes, to write a short piece around Archie’s final single,I’ve had the privilege of speaking with Archie a fair bit over the past three or four years. We’ve talked about light things and some heavy things too.
Like so many people, I’m always having those kinds of cosmic conversations with Archie, just usually at midnight, or earlier or lateron loop, and the greatest song ever written about Australia can play back to back for hours.
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