Cirrus@Austlit

'Over the past two decades, rock music has become a conspicuous means through which Aborigines confront and raise awareness about issues affecting Indigenous Australians and seek to educate other Australians about Aboriginal cultures. Aboriginal rock music is a complex site with multiple meanings dependent on, among other factors, the perspective of the listener, changing attitudes to Aboriginal arts, and the representation of Aboriginality by performers, writers, and the record industry. It is common, for example, to align Aboriginal rock music with other indigenous musics internationally and to present it as protest music from a reading of its topics at the level of the individual song. This approach is found in Breen (1994), Chi (1990), Streit-Warburton (1995) and Sweeney (1991), and song topics cited by these writers include black deaths in custodv, the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents, Aboriginal prison experience, and land rights. Strengthening the view of the song as the unit of meaning is the practice of using it for spreading information about the dangers and consequences of AIDS (for example, 'Inipanya AIDS Ngku' by Isaac Yamma and the Pitjantjatjara Country Band), alcohol abuse (for example, 'Leave the Grog' by the Yartulu Yartulu Band) and petrol sniffing (for example, 'Petrol Sniffing' by the Wedgetail Eagle Band) in Aboriginal communities, and for the expression of local identity (for example, 'Ngura Panyatja Titjikalanya' by the Titjikala Desert Oaks Band; 'Warumpinya' by the Warumpi Band).'  (Publication abstract)