Rcoktober '80s Song #8: "Beds Are Burning" by Midnight Oil (1987)

Today is Columbus Day in the U.S., a federal holiday, and there has been a push in recent years to change the name of the holiday to Indigenous Peoples' Day -- and many state and local governments throughout the country have changed it to Indigenous Peoples' Day or Native American Day.  As a second-generation Italian, you may assume that I am somehow partial to Christopher Columbus, but really, I don't see any issues with changing the holiday.  The fact of the matter is that Columbus represents European colonization of the New World, which was inarguably at the expense of North and South America's indigenous peoples' live and land.  Indigenous Peoples' Day celebrates Native Americans and serves as a reminder of the atrocities that European settlers inflicted on the native populations of our country.  Considering Columbus didn't actually discover America or even land on any portion of what would become the United States of America during any of his four voyages to the New World, it always seemed a little strange to me that there is a federal holiday in the U.S. (let alone various cities) named after him.

There are multiple '80s rock songs that deal with the plight of Native Americans, like Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills," Europe's "Cherokee," and Anthrax's "Indians."  I have other plans for Iron Maiden this Rocktober, the video to "Cherokee" is rife with historical inaccuracies (which you may expect from a Swedish band singing about Native Americans), and I haven't yet decided whether I'm going to feature another Anthrax song this month, so I'm going halfway across the world for another song that honors indigenous peoples:  "Beds Are Burning" by Midnight Oil.

While Midnight Oil had been huge in their native Australia, it wasn't until 1987 that they broke through in the U.S., thanks in large part to "Beds Are Burning" -- a song that criticizes how Australia had marginalized Aborigines and taken their land.  The song compels the return of land to Aborigines, and it ended up being a huge hit internationally.  It was the band's biggest hit in the U.S., reaching #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it also cracked the Top 10 on the pop charts in eight other countries, hitting #1 in Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

More importantly, the message of the song applies to the Columbus Day vs. Indigenous Peoples' Day argument -- which really shouldn't be an argument at all.  "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."