Analysis Of The Song Beds Are Burning By Midnight Oil

The song Beds are Burning by Midnight oil is a political song about giving native Australian lands back to the the Pintupi. The Pintupi were one of the very last people to come from the desert. These people began voluntarily moving from the Gibson Desert to settlements around the 1930ss. Many more were forcibly moved during the 1950's and 1960's to the Papunya settlement after they did not leave in the 1930’s. In 1981 they left to return to their own country, and established the Kintore community. Today it is a community with a population of 400 residents.
The song's first two lines in the music video are filled with images of the Australian desert. You know that they are showing Australia because in verse one it talked about bloodwood, which

Leading up to the 1950's, this desert's isolation was a perfect area for missile testing. It was figured that it would be easier to test these missiles if there was an area that was inhabited. The government made the decision that the Pintupi were to be relocated. The life within the western Desert was disregarded in favor of military testing. Their land was not purchased from them, it was taken. The Pintupi did not receive any compensation for their troubles. They became known as "The Stolen

The identity of a culture began to disappear into government suppression because of the forced removal. The line in the song that has the most repetition is "The time has come..." which emphasizes the return of these lands to their native people. Over recent decades, many Pintupi have moved back into their homes in their native land as part of the Outstation Movement. They have set up the community Kentore in the Northern Territory, and Kiwirrkura and Jupiter Well in Western Australia. “Beds Are Burning” means, how can we pretend that nothing is happening to our land, and how can we prevent it, stop it from affecting us. The chorus sums up the songs meaning: "The time has come to say fair's fair, To pay the rent now, to pay our