The Dust of Uruzgan | Fred Smith | TEDxCanberra 

In this rousing performance, singer songwriter, diplomat and raconteur Fred Smith moves from poignancy to laugh-out-loud hilarity with irreverent grace and ease. In his unique yet unmistakably Australian style, Fred brings 'The Dust of Uruzgan' to life.
Since join­ing the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Trade in 1996, Iain “Fred” Smith has deployed on Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment mis­sions to Bou­gain­ville (Papua New Guinea) and Solomon Islands, and more recently for two years in the Aus­tralian-US Pro­vin­cial Recon­struc­tion Team in Uruzgan province, Afgh­anistan. Back in Can­berra, he has been heav­ily involved in shap­ing Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment policy and pre­pared­ness for work­ing in con­flict-affected coun­tries.
Con­cur­rently, Fred has developed a par­al­lel career as a song­writer and per­former on the Aus­tralian fest­ival cir­cuit. He has released sev­eral albums, and is the sub­ject of two doc­u­ment­ary films about his work in con­flict zones. His song Dust of Uruzgan was recently covered by coun­try music star Lee Kernaghan on Lee’s chart-top­ping Spirit of the Anzacs album. He was described in the Mel­bourne Age as “one of this country’s most lit­er­ate, humor­ous, intel­li­gent and empathic song­writers.”
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx