Iain Campbell Smith
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Iain Campbell Smith is a former Australian diplomat, singer/songwriter and comedian. He performs under the stage name Fred Smith.
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[edit] Diplomatic career
Smith joined the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1997 and worked in the Indonesia, South Asia, and Human Rights sections. Postings included the Australian High Commission in Port Moresby and international peace monitoring missions in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He served as a civilian peace monitor in Bougainville Province between 1999 and 2003. He hosted a weekly program "Saredi Nait Pati" ("Saturday Night Party") in pidgin on Radio Bougainville.
The 2005 documentary film Bougainville Sky documents this work.
Smith regularly conducts lectures on the Bougainville peace process.
[edit] Musical career
As a sideline, Smith began performing his own songs at pubs and clubs around Canberra under the stage name Fred Smith. He released his first album Soapbox in 1997.
While in Bougainville Province, Smith talked extensively in pidgin with the locals about the peace process and set some of their ideas to music. The songs, performed by Smith with local musicians, were compiled on a cassette titled Songs of Peace and 20,000 copies were distributed around the province.
He has since appeared at numerous Australian and international folk festivals.
He moved to Washington, D.C. in 2006.
[edit] Albums
- Soapbox (1997)
- Songs of Peace (1999)
- Bagarap Empires (2001, reissued in 2005 to coincide with the release of Bougainville Sky)
- Party Pieces (2002)
- Into My Room (2003)
- Independence Park (2005)
- Ballads and Barsongs (2006)
[edit] Trivia
- He speaks fluent Melanesian pidgin.
[edit] External links
- Fred Smith Refugee Voices: Building Bridges, ABC Radio National, November 27, 2001
- Interview on Stateline Canberra, April 8, 2005
- Official site
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