Archie Roach: ‘The power of music’

Archie Roach talks about 'Took the Children Away' during a live concert performance. He explains why he wrote the song and how music has the power to heal.

This clip is from an SBS production titled Iconic Songs, which was filmed at Womadelaide in 2011. The production also featured Shane Howard and Neil Murray. 

An introduction like this one from Archie is a great illustration of how his talent for storytelling is a seamless combination of spoken word and song. His storytelling is enough to hold people in a spell as can be seen on the faces of the largely white audience visible in this segment.

Multiple cameras and vision mixing add visual interest and it's always useful to see the audience's reaction. Archie has told this story many times, but as this recording ably demonstrates, it always seems fresh.

Notes by Beth Taylor and Adam Blackshaw