[2] Smith joined the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 1996 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.

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 albums Bagarap Empires and Independence Park, and the documentary film Bougainville Sky are responses to his work with the peace monitoring mission.

[8] Speaking about the album with Newcastle Live in January 2016, Smith said "we made a positive difference in Uruzgan province in the time we were there and I want the Australian public to know that.

The book, which Smith wrote over an eight-month period between 2015 and 2016, is a memoir of detailing his experiences as a diplomat in Uruzgan, Afghanistan.