Archie Roach Took The Children Away

‘Took The Children Away’ by Archie Roach, an Indigenous Australian singer/songwriter, is about how the white people would take Aboriginal children away from their families and force them to act and to be ‘white’. This song was written to underline how the Aboriginal people were horribly mistreated because the white people thought their way of living was superior.

Essay Example on Took The Children Away

Archie Roach starts the first verse with a serious tone and tells us while the Aboriginal people were lied to he will not do the same to us.

He uses the simile, “And how they fenced us in like sheep,” to create the image that Aboriginal people were rounded up and treated like animals by white people. The rhyming couplets in the verse give the song flow and paint the picture of the white people teaching the Aboriginal people how to be like them – “Taught us to read, to write and pray / Then they took the children away.

” This idea is continued in the second verse which explores the way the Government removed Aboriginal kids from their home and families. This is expressed through the repetition of “They took the children away, took the children away” and “Teach them how to really live, teach them how to live”.

In the third verse, Roach gives us a short but powerful glimpse of the negative impact the removal of Aboriginal children had on their families. He does this through using rhyme “Breaking their mother’s heart, tearing us all apart” to show the reader the sadness the whole Aboriginal community experienced.

Get quality help now

Marrie pro writer

Verified

Proficient in: Communication

5 (204)

“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The fourth verse introduces Roach’s personal experience of growing up in Framlingham then losing his own family. The switch in the third person pronoun “took them away” to the repetition of the first person pronoun “took us away” within the verse makes the song more emotional to the reader and gets them to think more deeply about what Archie Roach and the Aboriginal community have been through.

The fifth verse deals with the feel…