Midnight Oil are a rock band from Sydney, Australia.
The Pintupi are an Australian aboriginal group that was moved off its tribal lands from the 1940s to the 1980s. They were some of the last aboriginal peoples in Australia to practice their traditional lifestyle. In the 1980s, some Pintupi began returning to their native territories and establishing settlements. This would become known as the Outstation Movement. Midnight Oil wrote the song featured here in support of their repatriation.
Out where the river broke The bloodwood and the desert oak Holden wrecks and boiling diesels Steam in forty five degrees The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent To pay our share The time has come A fact's a fact It belongs to them Let's give it back How can we dance When our earth is turning How do we sleep While our beds are burning How can we dance When our earth is turning How do we sleep While our beds are burning The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent Now to pay our share Four wheels scare the cockatoos From Kintore East to Yuendemu The western desert lives and breathes In forty five degrees The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent To pay our share The time has come A fact's a fact It belongs to them Let's give it back How can we dance When our earth is turning How do we sleep While our beds are burning How can we dance When our earth is turning How do we sleep While our beds are burning The time has come To say fair's fair To pay the rent now To pay our share The time has come A fact's a fact It belongs to them We're gonna give it back How can we dance When our earth is turning How do we sleep While our beds are burning