Archie Roach Awarded Companion of the Order of Australia

The late Archie Roach has received a posthumous Companion of the Order of Australia award in the 2023 Australia Day honors.

Archie has received the honor “For eminent service to the performing arts as a songwriter and musician, to Indigenous rights and reconciliation, and through support for emerging First Nations artists”.

Archie passed away on 30 July 2022.

Archie’s music drew attention to the Stolen Generation, a time in Australia’s history when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were removed from their families by the Australian Government. These Australian government atrocities occurred well into the 1970s.

Archie’s debut album ‘Charcoal Lane’ has become a musical document of the time. ‘Charcoal Lane’ refers to a place in Gertrude Street in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb Fitzroy which became the meeting place near the building indigenous Australians came to when they left missions and reserves and moved to the city to trace their families.

The late Mr Archibald William ROACH AM
Formerly of Port Fairy VIC 3284
Archie Roach Foundation
• Director, 2014-2022.
• Supporter, Jessie Lloyd’s Mission Songs Project.
• Founder, 2014.
Community
• Supporter, Justice Action.
• Patron, Parkville College, Melbourne Youth Justice Centre, 2014-2022.
Publications
• Author, Tell Me Why for Young Adults, Simon and Schuster, 2021.
• Author, Took The Children Away, Simon and Schuster, 2020.
• Author, Tell Me Why (memoir), Simon and Schuster, 2018.
Albums include:
• Archie Roach My Songs 1989-2021, Bloodlines, 2021
• The Songs of Charcoal Lane, Bloodlines Records, 2020.
• Tell Me Why, Bloodlines Records, 2019.
• Dancing with My Spirit, Mushroom Music Publishing, 2018.
• Let Love Rule, Liberation, 2016.
Awards and Recognition include:
• Appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, 2015.
• Best Blues and Roots Album (The Songs of Charcoal Lane), ARIA Music Awards,
2021.
• 2020 Victorian Australian of the Year.
• Inductee, ARIA Music Hall of Fame, 2020.
• Best Male Artist (Tell Me Why), ARIA Music Awards, 2020.
• Best Contemporary Album (Tell Me Why), ARIA Music Awards, 2020.
• Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music, 2017.

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