Archie Roach finds the answer to what connects us all

It is a universal message from one of the country's most loved artists during NAIDOC week and one that resonates deeply in his celebrated award-winning memoir, Tell Me Why.

Described as one of our most important First Nation's voices, singer-songwriter, and now celebrated author, Roach tells of archaeological evidence of a 'place of fire' by European settlers' on his mother's land on Gunditjmara country in southwest Victoria.

Next month, Roach will return to 'the place of fire' on the Bundjalung land of his father's people. Audiences at The Byron Writers festival will get to sit with him In Conversation ahead of what is slated to be his farewell national tour.

"I really love connecting with audiences in regional communities and it's going to be particularly special to tour around Bundjalung country, where my father was from, with shows in Lismore and Grafton in particular," says Roach

He has been recording award-winning albums for nearly 30 years. His deeply personal song 'Took the Children Away' from his 1990 debut album Charcoal Lane, won an International Human Rights Achievement Award and was featured in US Rolling Stone magazine's Top 50 in 1992, going gold in Australia and winning two ARIA awards.

In his memoir, the 65-year-old tells of how he survived the trauma of being a member of the Stolen Generations and now uses his story to heal the schism that exists between the races of the world.

"For so long we have been divided by "isms" - racism, sexism, fundamentalism, individualism - but when we come back to the place of fire...I believe we will be one humanity again, that we will find release, healing and true freedom," he writes.

"I'll be there - to welcome you back, wrap my arms around you and say, 'I missed you. Welcome home.'"

Tell Me Why was released in late 2019 and, despite the accompanying album national tour cancellation due to COVID 19, has gone on to cement Roach's legacy as an artist and activist for Indigenous rights.

He speaks of the "intergenerational trauma" of never having known his mother and father and how, through years of homelessness and alcoholism, he finally found the lost members of his family.

But it was his love for Ruby Hunter, and their musical bond, that enabled him to rise above the scourge of his people and "live a good life" and be the "best person he could be".

His message to his children and grandchildren, who also grew up not knowing their ancestors, is: to "always let love be your guide."

Above all, Tell Me Why is a love story.

In the book, Roach touchingly describes the first day he met Ruby.

"I can still see her in my mind today. I can see the look on her face: intense, intelligent and kind," he writes.

Their shared experiences, both were taken from their families and were brought up in institutions and in educated white homes, continued to parallel through life as they moved between Melbourne and Adelaide, from Ngarrindjeri and Gundjitmara country.

He says with Ruby "her presence seemed to make things a bit more hopeful".

But it took years "charged" with alcohol and some prison time for him, and rehab for the both of them, before the couple finally got sober and found their sense of place with their kids.

Archie credits his foster life with the Cox family for his early introduction to music, but it was Ruby who convinced him of his responsibility to take his talent into the big time.

Having been discovered by Paul Kelly and Steve Connolly from The Messengers, Roach was on the verge of turning down a record deal when Ruby told him: "How many black fellas you reckon get to record an album...When one of us shines we all shine."

It was at this point, writes Archie, Ruby's own musical talent truly emerged and she became a celebrated musician in her own right.

In the intervening years the couple played all over the world with greats such as Paul Simon, Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman and Gurrumul.

In 2000, Archie performed with Yothu Yindi at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Olympic celebrations, but it was while working with Bangarra Dance Company he was inspired to learn his father's language, Bundjalung.

"...when I sang in Bundjalung it felt as if I was doing something I'd done before, long ago. It was in my memory."

The experience of being on Bundjalung country "made him feel whole", he writes.

"I was no longer just Archie Roach, a Gunditjmara man from south-west Victoria, but Archie Roach, a Bundjalung man from the Northern Rivers country of New South Wales."

At the end of his memoir, Archie thanks his audience for helping him to heal, not just from Ruby's passing in 2010, but his subsequent stroke.

Ruby's death "crushed" his children and the "balance that kept us all in each other's orbits was thrown violently off course".

Roach, who is suffering from complex respiratory conditions, says his song-writing has now come full circle.

"When I first started penning songs, I wrote about what happened to me and to my people. But then other people, non-indigenous people, would come up to me and say: 'That's what happened to me'.

Archie says his song writing now "feels more inclusive, more universal in its sentiments".

"I believe that all of us living in Australia suffer, at least a little, from the dispossession and disconnection that I felt in my younger years that drove me mad to drink."

We all have to wonder about our place in the continuum, our place "in the natural world, of hills, rivers, and seas, of animals and plants, of people of all colours and creeds", he says.

"The heartbeat that connects us all goes way back to the very beginning of time itself.

"Now my whole outlook on life is about reminding us all of the place where we all began, where we all came from."

He says he now prefers performing in smaller regional venues because they feel more intimate.

"I think the audiences understand a little more about what it is I talk and sing about; how community can be strong and there for each other as community should."

"It's sad what's happening in the world today, particularly in Australia. We are closing ourselves off and not letting people in, not only into the country, but not letting them into our hearts, into our minds....Our identity comes from many cultures and peoples."

Love should be the "main sentiment" of our lives, he says, it should be "about a willingness to love one another and find the things common to us - our shared humanity - rather than just see the things that divide us".

To see Archie Roach In Conversation with Daniel Browning on Friday, August 6 in The Southern Cross University Marquee go to the Byron Writers Festival website: byronwritersfestival.com