Took The Children Away (1990) – Archie Roach

I first heard about Archie through my guitar player, Steve Connolly, who’d seen him on a TV show called Blackout and said, “You gotta hear this guy.” We wanted to do something special for our Hamer Hall show in 1990 so we tracked down Archie [to support]. He finished [his set] with Took the Children Away. There was this stunned silence; he thought he’d bombed. Then this wave of applause grew and grew; I’d never heard anything like it.
– Paul Kelly (Australian singer-songwriter and producer of Archie Roach’s debut album – Charcoal lane)

The late, great Aboriginal Australian singer Archie Roach came to national attention with the song that launched his career, Took the Children Away. In it, Roach sings about being forcibly removed from his family as a child under government assimilation policies that created what is now known as the Stolen Generations. The trauma of that removal stayed with him throughout his life and became the foundation of his art, beginning with his debut album, Charcoal Lane (1990).

I will never forget hearing, for the first time, Roach’s plaintive and yearning voice as he told these deeply personal stories about the impact of the Stolen Generations on him, his family, and his community. The song is undeniably sad and heartbreaking, yet it closes with an unexpected turn toward hope and spiritual strength.

Few songs end with such a striking and liberating sense of epiphany. Each time I hear it, my eyes well with tears. The images it evokes feel almost cinematic in scope – yet this is not fiction. It is lived history. It is a moment so powerful that it deserves to be discovered by the listener – I don’t want to spoil it.

Took the Children Away is a searing political song but a love song to Archie’s family, people and country too. I knew it would get a strong response because of how it affected me and that audience at Hamer Hall when we first heard it. It’s got a very strong gospel tone, which is why we started it with just his voice and a church-sounding organ. Archie is a beautiful soul singer.
– Paul Kelly

About ten years after first discovering Charcoal Lane and listening to it countless times, I saw Roach perform live in Melbourne alongside my favourite Australian singer-songwriter, David Bridie, founder of My Friend the Chocolate Cake. That concert remains one of my most cherished musical memories.

In 2008, then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a formal National Apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for the forced removal of children from their families. Songs like Took the Children Away helped prepare the emotional ground for that moment. Roach’s work brought the reality of the Stolen Generations into the mainstream of Australian music and public life.

He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2015 for his service to music and social justice. Archie Roach passed away in 2022, leaving behind a body of work that continues to heal and educate.

[Verse 1]
This story’s right, this story’s true
I would not tell lies to you
Like the promises they did not keep
And how they fenced us in like sheep
Said to us, “Come take our hand”
Set us up on mission land
Taught us to read, to write and pray
Then they took the children away

[Chorus 1]
Took the children away
The children away
Snatched from their mother’s breast
Said “This is for the best”
Took them away

[Verse 2]
Welfare man, the policeman
Said you got to understand
We’ll give to them what you can’t give
Teach them how to really live
“Teach them how to live,” they said
Humiliated them instead
Taught them that and taught them this
And others taught them prejudice

[Chorus 2]
You took the children away
The children away
Breakin’ their mother’s heart
Tearing us all apart
Took them away

[Verse 3]
One dark day on Framingham
Came and didn’t give a damn
My mother cried, “Go get their dad”
He came runnin’, fightin’ mad
Mother’s tears were falling down
And Dad shaped up, and he stood his ground, he said
“You touch my kids and you’ll fight me”
Then they took us from our family

[Chorus 1]
Took us away
They took us away
Snatched from our mother’s breast
Said this is for the best
Took us away

[Verse 4]
Told us what to do and say
Taught us all the white man’s ways
Then they split us up again
And gave us gifts to ease the pain
Sent us off to the foster homes
As we grew up, we felt alone
‘Cause we were acting white yet feeling black
One sweet day all the children came back

[Chorus 3]
The children came back
The children came back
Back where their hearts grow strong
Back where they all belong
The children came back
I said the children came back
The children came back
Back where they understand
Back to their mother’s land
The children came back

[Outro]
Back to their mother
Back to their father
Back to their sister
Back to their brother
Back to their people
Back to their land
All the children came back
The children came back
The children came back
Yes, I came back

References:
1. Took the Children Away – Wikipedia
2. Archie Roach’s Took the Children Away: how one heartbreaking song galvanised a nation – The Guardian