''1988'' (also known as Music Deli Presents Archie Roach 1988) is a compilation album by Australian singer song writer

Archie Roach Archibald William Roach (8 January 1956 – 30 July 2022) was an Australian singer, songwriter and Aboriginal activist. Often referred to as "Uncle Archie", Roach was a Gunditjmara and Bundjalung elder who campaigned for the rights of Abori ...

. ''1988'' is the second in a series of artist releases from the live archives of ABC Radio's Music Deli program. It captures some of the first ever recordings of young Indigenous songwriter

. The majority of the album was recorded in 1988 while other tracks were recorded live at Melbourne Concert Hall when Roach supported

Yothu Yindi Yothu Yindi ( Yolngu for "child and mother", pronounced ) are an Australian musical group with Aboriginal and '' balanda'' (non-Aboriginal) members, formed in 1986 as a merger of two bands formed in 1985 – a white rock group called the Swam ...

in January 1992 and The "Christmas Eve" song with Paul Kelly was also recorded live in ABC studio in 1990. A bonus at the end of the CD is an interview with Archie Roach recorded on 1 March 1988, followed by a short follow up interview 20 years later recorded in September 2008. At the

ARIA Music Awards of 2010 The 24th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) are a series of award ceremonies which included the 2010 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine ...

, the album was nominated for

ARIA Award for Best World Music Album The ARIA Music Award for Best World Music Album, is an award presented within the Fine Arts Awards at the annual ARIA Music Awards. It was inaugurated in 1995 as Best Folk/World/Traditional Release. The ARIA Awards recognise "the many achieveme ...

Background and release

Paul Petran says in his liner notes on the album "In 1988 much of Australia was celebrating 200 years of white settlement but a young Archie Roach was expressing in song what many who weren't celebrating were feeling. For many indigenous people there was anger, despair, disadvantage, land rights battles and deaths in custody. Archie dealt with this by writing songs about his own experiences and feelings - and then performing these songs to whomever would listen." Roach said “I started out back in 87 when I started writing " Took the Children Away" and I also started writing songs in protest of the bicentennial. I wanted to release these songs just to let younger people know what it was like for Aboriginal people back in 1988... We were looking for change of course but the main point was to make a stand against the bicentennial and to let people know there is a black history in this country.” Roach and his manager listened to these recordings again in 2007 and decided it was the right time to release them.

Track listing

Release history

References

{{Archie Roach Archie Roach albums Compilation albums by Australian artists