[James Fitzsimons]

Hi all,
While trawling through some academic journals the other day, I came
across this interesting article by Laetitia Vellutini in the Journal of
Australian Studies entitled "Finding a Voice on Indigenous Issues:
Midnight Oil's Inappropriate Appropriations" [Sept 2003 i79 p129 (8pp)]

Without wanting to infringe copyright, I'll just post the article's
abstract which appears on the Journal's website
http://www.api-network.com/cgi-bin/jas/jasview.cgi?issue=79

Abstract:
Midnight Oil is undoubtedly Australia’s best-known political rock band.
For
twenty-five years, the group has voiced demands for social justice and
publicly
criticised aspects of Australian society. It seems inevitable that the
band
came to be concerned with Indigenous issues and found ways to debate
these
issues within mainstream discourse. However, while seeking to promote
greater
understanding of the deleterious effects of ‘white’ Australia on the
Indigenous
population, the band made choices that some of the people they attempted
to
represent found offensive and viewed as perpetuating myths and
prejudice. At
times, Midnight Oil contributed to the silencing of Indigenous voices,
particularly by suppressing or refusing to engage with the objections of

Aboriginal groups. While the band may not have considered itself to be
an
independent instance of power, an ‘epistemological a priori’ dominating
knowledge, Midnight Oil’s prominence in spheres of public debate meant
that
their message often drowned out that of those to whom they attempted to
lend
their voice.



Cheers
James