Review: CABARET FESTIVAL 2018: ARCHIE ROACH AND TIDDAS - DANCING WITH MY SPIRIT at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Ray Smith, Friday 22nd June 2018

The spacious and comfortable Dunstan Playhouse was filled to capacity for Archie Roach and Tiddas, as Jack Buckskin took to the stage to welcome us to country in English and in Kaurna, the native language of his people. This witty, engaging and talented young man works with Tauondi Aboriginal College in Port Adelaide as an Aboriginal Cultural Service Mentor, "and has been a strong icon in the revitalisation process of Kaurna language through managing and performing song and dance with Kuma Kaaru Cultural Services and through teaching Kaurna language". He sang a song in Kaurna to invite the spirits to join us in the Playhouse for this momentous performance.

The stage was "busier" than I had expected, boasting a full drum kit and several bass and guitar amplifiers. The grand piano was ready and waiting next to a contemporary electric keyboard, and the slender form of an electric double bass loomed from the back of the stage.

The players entered and moved to their instruments as Jen Anderson, the producer of the original recordings of the music we were about to hear, approached a microphone to greet us and to invite Archie Roach and Tiddas to the stage.

The audience erupted as the three magnificent women singers moved to their microphones.
Sally Dastey, Lou Bennett and the irrepressible Amy Saunders seemed totally at easy despite not having worked together for almost twenty years before this tour. "Uncle" Archie Roach quietly made his way to his microphone and seat, a soft smile acknowledging the whistles, calls and applause from the adoring audience.

We were already in the palm of his hand as he began to tell us, in that slow gentle way of his, of the spiritual journey that had led to the songs from the Dancing With My Spirit recording. The songs were recorded as a demonstration tape 25 years ago when Archie Roach and Tiddas teamed up with producer Jen Anderson. The recordings were all but lost and had never been heard outside the recording studio, until they were recently rediscovered. The discovery of the tapes led to a reunion of the four musicians and their producer after 20 years apart, and the re-formation of Tiddas and the old collaboration with Archie Roach is an event to be celebrated.

The six piece band, playing acoustic and electric guitar, bass, drums and percussion, piano and synthesiser, mandolin, ukulele and violin, never got in the way of the songs and their stories. They played with great reverence for the material.

Melodic solos were acknowledged as the Tiddas, the "Sisters" would turn to the soloist to listen before turning back to their microphones to deliver chillingly beautiful harmonies around Archie's low, soft voice.

Every song was introduced by it's story, stories of the bush and nature and reverence for the land and stories of living on the darkened back streets and in alleyways of unforgiving cities.

Before River Song, he told us of waking by the river to see the fire already burning and his late wife, Ruby Hunter, a great Ngarrindjeri singer/songwriter in her own right, fishing with a hand line for their breakfast. Perhaps as a warning about the current state of the Murray River he said, "The rivers are so important to us. They are the veins and arteries of the land. Take care of them or the land may suffer a heart attack or stroke." During the song itself, Archie cast an invisible line forward and drew it in again and we, the audience, were the fish that he had caught and brought to shore to sit with him by that riverside camp fire.

A Child Was Born Here is an extraordinarily moving song and tells of the unbelievable depth of the connection between First Nations people and the land that they tread on so gently. "The native animals" Uncle Archie told us, "have soft feet so that they do not cut up the land", an obvious reminder of the damage caused by the cloven hooves of the non-native species brought into the country by those with less understanding.

"A child was born here.
Birth Mother to Earth Mother,
placenta placed under a tree under paper bark.
Careful when you walk through this land.
A child was born here."

A story and song about travelling through Spain and throughout Europe brought shades of Joan Baez from the beautiful voices of Tiddas.

"Not knowing where we were beneath these northern stars."

The deep connection between these four great Aboriginal musicians was obvious to anyone watching them on stage together, but their individual and collective connection to their land we needed to be reminded of.

The stage suddenly cleared, leaving Sally Dastey, Lou Bennett, and Amy Saunders alone. We were to be offered a very rare treat indeed. After 20 years of absence, the Tiddas were going to play for us. I was transported back in time instantly as familiar but only half remembered songs soared and wove in harmony over the Dunstan Playhouse audience.

We were invited to clap in time and stamp our feet and then to sing along as Archie Roach came back on stage to perform Wild Mountain Thyme with the three women. It was truly uplifting, and the perfect segue into the final song of the concert with the full 10 piece ensemble. This was far more than a musical performance, this was an insight into the life and mind of one of Australia's truly great songwriters. We were led gently into two worlds few of us know anything about, the deep spiritual connection to the country that denies any separation between the very land itself and its people and native species, the stories and songs of an ancient and proud people that hold their long history in memory, the Stolen Generation, the foster homes, the life on the streets, the desperate search for identity and purpose. the alcohol, the despair, the prisons and the long dark road to recovery.

Archie Roach and Tiddas didn't just say, "come and watch me Dancing With My Spirit", they took our hands and led us onto the dance floor with them.

This was a superb concert and I hope I don't have to wait 25 years for the next one.

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