ENGLISH: BELIEFS AND VALUES OF PETER GARRETT
Unity and separation, love and hate, tranquillity and chaos. During the 19th century to the present day, there has been a big push for racial equality. Racial equality has been long associated with the African Americans and famous figures such as Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks, but also occurs all over the world and a disreputable display of this was the treatment of Aboriginal Australians. Peter Garrett, the lead singer of Midnight Oil, was a strong advocate for Aboriginal land rights, and argued that the original landowners should receive some compensation for the Europeans invading their country and taking their land. He displayed his irritation in the songs and his top song “Beds are Burning”…show more content… He directs attention to the problem being urgent by saying that “the time has come”. The invited reading for the piece is evident, when Peter Garrett sings the lyrics “How can we sleep when our beds are burning” is a metaphor for how are we as a community able to sleep when there is a major issue driving our community apart. Furthermore, during the song Garrett asks us how can how enjoy life while our Earth is changing so drastically. This is shown when he sings the line “how can we dance when our Earth is…show more content… Peter Garrett created the song, in an attempt to connect Australians with the concerns of the Aboriginal people. The song did help people bring people’s attention to the issue and in 1998 on the 26th of May, the first National Sorry Day was held in apology for removing the Aboriginal people from their homes. Peter Garrett’s attitudes and beliefs and attitudes helped create a song that ended up circumnavigating the world and the issues in Australia were heard over the roar over the Cold
