Archie Roach is launching a new interview series with First Nations musicians from around Australia.
Uncle Archie’s Kitchen Table Yarns will kick off on August 4, with each episode filmed in Roach’s home in regional Victoria and released each Wednesday on his YouTube channel.
Twelve Indigenous artists will take part in the fireside-chat style videos with the legendary musician covering culture, community, songwriting and language.
Composer Allara Briggs Pattison will be Roach’s first guest, with the full lineup to be revealed at a later date.
The impetus for the series was the postponement of his farewell tour in the wake of rolling state lockdowns and border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yarning at my kitchen table with these young artists will help people understand who they are and give them another platform to promote their music,” Roach said in a press statement.
“The kitchen table has always been a place of inspiration for me. It’s a place where I’ve written most of my songs, drank many cups of tea, ate meals, played music whilst my children ran around making plenty of noise. It represents family, community and love.”
Roach and Ruby Hunter’s 2004 performance with the Australian Art Orchestra is set to be revisited in Philippa Bateman’s directorial debut, Wash My Soul in the Rivers’ Flow, screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival next month.
In April, Archie Roach’s audiobook for his biography Tell Me Why took out the Audiobook Of The Year award at the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards.