He’s one of Australia’s most important artists, a singer, songwriter and storyteller, Archie Roach has been spending his time before visiting the Far South Coast for a series of shows quietly writing new songs, full of new inspiration.

“I’m writing more about love, which is a little different, and exploring new styles and I’ve been really enjoying it because once a song starts to flow it’s a great feeling.”

With three shows over the coming weeks at the Cobargo Folk Festival, Wallaga Lake, and the Four Winds Windsong Pavilion in Barragga Bay, it won’t be the first time the ARIA award winning artist has visited this part of the world.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Bega, I was there back when I was a young fella,” he said. 

“I had family who used to live in town, we’d get the guitars out and play songs at night."

His moving 1990 album Charcoal Lane told the stories of a forgotten generation of Indigenous Australians and in doing so won an International Human Rights Achievement Award.

Mr Roach was taken from his family in Framlingham on the east coast of Victoria when he was a child, and moved from institutions to foster families before settling in the home of Scottish migrants.

“When I first went to live with him I couldn’t understand a word he said, then in the end I had to translate for my mates when they’d come over,” Mr Roach said.

It was during this time that he learnt the keyboard and was exposed to music from across the Pacific, the music of Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Mahalia Jackson, before receiving a letter from his older sister describing to him the events of his childhood.

“I hit the road at 15 and didn’t know where I was going, so I headed to Sydney and drifted to different cities, staying on the streets.

“I think the travelling around and getting to know different people and towns was good groundwork for touring later on,” he said.

His love for the acoustic guitar is evident in his music and it’s a love that goes back to those difficult times and his search for identity.

“The acoustic is much easier to carry around than a keyboard, it’s not a difficult instrument, it is light so you can carry it anywhere, any time, and it doesn’t have to be plugged in,” he said.

With new songs written and a new found positivity flowing through him, what can we expect from a man with such an array of songs to choose from?

“I’m a bit more focused these days, I used to take things as they came,” he said.

“I have new material, but new songs have to sit in the soul for a while before you can play them live.”

Archie Roach will be playing at the Cobargo Folk Festival on Saturday, February 28, and the Four Winds Windsong Pavilion, Barragga Bay on Sunday, March 1. 

Tickets for both events are still available at www.cobargofolkfestival.com and www.fourwinds.com.au

His show for the local Yuin community at Wallaga Lake is closed to the general public.