Why Did Midnight Oil write: The Dead Heart? By James The song The Dead Heart was written and performed by Peter Garret, James Moginie and Robert Hirst in 1988. They wrote this song for aboriginals to help draw attention to the fact that white man took aboriginal children from their families and their traditional way of life and Midnight Oil believed authorities wanted to try and westernise them and destroy their culture. White man also took land from the aboriginal people to benefit themselves and make money.

In the first verse of ‘The Dead Heart’ the band uses the words:

‘We don’t serve your country don’t serve your King know your custom don’t speak your tongue White man came took everyone’ This is saying that the aboriginals don’t follow the English way of life or serve the king of England, they have their own beliefs, traditions and leaders. Because the aboriginal people don’t speak white mans language or follow their customs, children were taken away from their families to try and westernise them.

In the second verse of ‘The Dead Heart’ the band uses the words:

‘We don’t serve your country don’t serve your king White man listen to the songs we sing White man came took everything’

This means that white man needs to listen to the aboriginals and try to understand them. But they didn’t try to understand and tried to take everything away from the aboriginals.

In the third verse of ‘The Dead Heart’ the band uses the words:

‘We carry in our hearts the true country And that cannot be stolen We follow in the steps of our ancestry And that cannot be broken’ This is saying that the aboriginals carry in their hearts their true country, not the place that they were moved to. And what it means to them and that can never be taken away from them. They will always follow in the steps of their ancestors and will continue their traditions and beliefs no matter what white man tries to do to them.

In the fourth verse of ‘The Dead Heart’ the band uses the words:

‘We don’t need protection Don’t need your land Keep your promise on where we stand We will listen well understand’ This is saying that the aboriginals can look after themselves without any interference from white man. The aboriginals already own the land because they are part of it. The land is a part of their culture and their lives. The aboriginals will listen to what white man has to say and they will understand, but white man needs to keep its promises of land rights.

In the fifth verse of ‘The Dead Heart’ the band uses the words: ‘Mining companies, Pastoral companies Uranium companies Collected companies Got more right than people Got more Say than People’ This means that the big companies have more say and more right because they are big and have lots of money and people listen to them (‘money talks’). In the sixth verse of ‘The Dead Heart’ the band uses the words:

‘Forty thousand years can make a difference to the state of things The Dead heart lives here’ This means that the aboriginals have lived in Australia for forty thousand years and have looked after this country. The aboriginals feel dead in their hearts because of what white man has done to them by taking away their children and their land.

I chose ‘The Dead Heart’ by Midnight Oil because I like this song and comments on aboriginal rights.