Screening of the State Memorial Service for Uncle Archie Roach AM

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article contains an image of a person who has died.

A State Memorial Service to celebrate the life and music of Uncle Archie Roach AM will be held on Thursday 15 December 2022 at 7pm at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and Fed Square will be streaming the service live on our Big Screen.

Uncle Archie Roach was a storyteller, a singer and songwriter, a cultural figure, a survivor and an icon.

As a proud Gunditjmara and Bundjalung man, Uncle Archie carved a unique path through Australian music and culture over four decades.

His professional music career began as a recording artist with the song “Took the Children Away,” an ode to the Stolen Generations and his experience as a child removed from his family at the age of two. The song featured on his debut album Charcoal Lane (1990).

In 2011, Uncle Archie was one of the first people inducted to the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll, and in 2020 he was named the Victorian Australian of the Year.

In 2015, Uncle Archie was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his significant service to the performing arts as a singer, songwriter and guitarist, and to the community as a spokesperson for social justice.

Throughout his career, Uncle Archie won countless awards and in 2020, having already won seven ARIAs, he was inducted into the ARIA hall of fame. The next year, Uncle Archie won his eighth ARIA for his tenth studio album, The Songs of Charcoal Lane.

In 2019, Uncle Archie published his first book and autobiography Tell Me Why. The award-winning memoir details Uncle Archie’s many lives and charts his extraordinary journey.

Above all, Uncle Archie was a family man, a loving life and musical partner to the late Ruby Hunter and a father to Amos, Eban, Krissy, Arthur and Terrence.

The State Memorial Service will be an opportunity for Victorians to pay tribute to his legacy and contribution to the state, community and country.