Own Backyard

(What should I do?) [Verse 1: Solo] Tension simmers from the white hot heat of the cold hard truth That I never heard up in no classroom Coming to understand, that I got blood on my hands Cost of living in this sunburnt land From the sands of the coast to the bush We advanced as we came And we pushed as they pulled so we took And what we gave in exchange Plague, disease and poison in the bottle No question, blood stains the wattle Was it like a game of hide and seek? Stalking through the bush silently Cos society told em to do it quietly From the Apple Isle to the Myall Creek Gun barrels rang out and put an end to what might've been Genocide, lies, deceit, rape and massacre Systematic assassination of character Acts of depravity disguised as charity All in the name of civilising humanity Children snatched away from their families Pain resonates leaving untold casualties Protection boards and half castes The truth is the flag ought fly at half mast It's a dark past buried in our own backyard Still I can't stand the thought that it's all too hard Or the heartless catch cry that "it's all in the past" Yo that sounds like a coward's remarks This is happening right now, outback third world conditions That never seem to make our televisions Screens to congested with the rhetoric of politicians Grandiose claims about Australian traditions Enquiries and royal commissions That are yet follow through to a conviction Loyal subjects protected by the system Too many dying in our prisons Like a Palm Island man left lying on a cold cell floor While the people looked for justice in a makeshift court The response just stopped short of martial law With the riot squad kicking down doors I remember at fifteen, walking through The Block, feeling nervous Cos my whole life I'd heard that it was risky The racist in me, what a crock of shit I stopped to think the opposite when the streets burned for T.J Hickey Don't ask why, what's the use in that? Cops roll past in red, white and blue of the Union Jack Subtile oppression, bubbling menace Maintain the presence, make the population feel threatened Now fate beckons, hear the echoes As the pain resonates devastation Every January 26 I'm torn between wanting to celebrate And hang my head in shame There's gotta be a better way, let me say [Hook: Jimblah] This mountain's too high And the levy's about to break Who will take this fight? Who will take this blame? We gotta justify this lie Tell me what it takes I said I'm sick of sitting here I said I'm sick of sitting here waiting round for the change Said we gotta get up [Verse 2: Jimblah] This is the story of a high plains drifter Circle where they left us On the front line of resistance Assimilation imminent Language lost Now I'm talking mad primitive English tah for the etikit The alcohol give us smoke bruh Two dollars for a bus fair Citizenship now And maybe I could vote and not be treated like a fucking joke They want me to settle down Cos the shit that I know Could burn a hole in their program About to explode See the content in my dome Is a war zone The aftermath, guess what, it's here Our generation still appears to be stuck with fear Cos you don't wanna see the change If you like how it is And every day's another day When I see another kid Growing up without nothing cos mum's an alcoholic And dad's locked up Brotherboy went and hung himself Off a tree in the front yard You wanna clean up your own backyard Before you wanna try to save the world first I done walked through the fire and then got burnt Sympathy for a victim, we choose hate I part ways with them dark days Cuz you forget about our pain but Who's to blame cos What they taught you in a classroom consumed you? Well, here's the truth See they tried to wipe us off the face of the earth dude Do the math, need proof look around you [Hook]