Archie Roach

Australian singer, songwriter, and activist Archie Roach emerged in the early '90s fusing a folk-inspired sound with traditions from his indigenous heritage. His ARIA-winning debut album, Charcoal Lane, was centered around Roach's heartbreaking "Took the Child Away," a deeply affecting ballad about his experience as one of the "Stolen Generation" of aboriginal children who were taken from their parents and placed in non-indigenous households. The song earned Roach a Human Rights Achievement Award, marking the first time the honor had been bestowed upon a songwriter. Over the next two decades, Roach and his longtime musical and life partner, Ruby Hunter, established themselves as leading lights of Australian folk and aboriginal music. Prior to his death in 2022, Roach enjoyed an impressive late-career comeback, earning widespread acclaim for albums like 2016's Let Love Rule and the soundtrack to his 2019 memoir, Tell Me Why.