Midnight Oil 'Song a Day' #41 "Kosciusko"

Top 5 on my list of favourites this song is just brilliant live, whether in full blast or [as on this tour] beginning front stage and building to a full assault in the back end of it... here from Oils on the Water!!!
   It shows the strength of the tuneful melody provided by Rob First as the counter to the spoken word poetry that is PG's 'singing.' For me this song is about the struggle of aboriginal people, culture, language and land that's "older than Kosciusko."
   Threatened by European arrival, mining, business and all the policy over decades and decades, the song still resonates today. The strength of this song is it's descriptions of the violence and struggle and the driving guitar and drum rhythm make it a powerful track. It's a song about how we treat our most precious people. I suppose if you're not invested in or committed to recognition, what sovereignty might mean or at least appreciative of indigenous culture, story, language and the future of aboriginal people in this country, then the song probably isn't quite as powerful... and you'd be wrong!!

"Bind up the brokenhearted, No don't turn away, Call off the ultimatum until yesterday..."

"Kosciusko"
Older than Kosciuszko
Darwin down to Alice Springs
Dealers in the clearinghouse
The settlements explode
High up in the homelands
Miners drive across the land
Encounter no resistance
When the people block the road
Older than Kosciuszko
Dry white seasons years ago
Darkness over Charleville
The fires begin to grow
No end to the hostility
Now they want to be somewhere else
No stranger to brutality
Now they'd like to be someone else
Older than Kosciuszko
Driven back to Alice Springs
Endless storm and struggle
Marks the spirit of the age
High up in the homelands
Celebration 'cross the land
Builds up like a cyclone
Now the fires begin to rage
Call off the ultimatum
No don't turn away
Call off the ultimatum until yesterday
Call off the ultimatum
No don't turn away
Bind up the brokenhearted
No don't turn away
Call off the ultimatum until yesterday