First 10 Australian songs inducted into the National Songbook after ‘very robust’ judging

Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning, Yothu Yindi’s Treaty and Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman are among the first 10 Australian songs to be inducted into the National Songbook – a new digital archive that celebrates and preserves songs that have shaped Australia’s national cultural identity.Launched on Wednesday night at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) in Canberra, the songbook is a joint initiative between NFSA and the music rights organisation Apra Amcos. The first 10 songs were selected by a panel of 11 music experts including broadcasters Richard Kingsmill and Zan Rowe, composer Cornel Wilczek and musician Mo’Ju.The Apra chair, Jenny Morris, and the NFSA chair, Annette Shun Wah, facilitated a “very robust conversation”, said Meagan Loader, the chief curator of the NFSA.“There’s no such thing as a definitive list when it comes to music – you can never capture everyone’s taste – but I hope people see at least one song on there and see themselves reflected in the list,” said Loader, who was not part of the panel. “You hear some of these songs and you feel distinctly that they say something about who we are as a nation.”The oldest song on the list is Andrew “Banjo” Paterson’s Waltzing Matilda, written by the bush poet in 1895 and later composed by Christina Macpherson. The 1927 recording “remains one of Australia’s most enduring hauntings”, the panel said.Yothu Yindi’s Treaty – written by Dr M Yunupingu, Stuart Kellaway, Witiyana Marika, M Mununggurr, Cal Williams, G Yunupingu, Peter Garrett and Paul Kelly – was included for being a “landmark protest anthem”. Written in 1990 around a campfire, the rallying song has soundtracked generations of gatherings, from protests to dancefloors.“I’m proud to be part of the song,” Paul Kelly told Guardian Australia. “Like the song, the process of treaty-making around the country is the work of many hands and still ongoing.”Kelly said the song came to be when he and M Yunupingu were sitting around a campfire at Birany Birany, East Arnhem Land.“From there it travelled through many hands – to a Darwin rehearsal room with the rest of the band, then to recording studios in Melbourne and Sydney, a hotel room in Glebe, the Midnight Oil offices with Peter Garrett, and back to Melbourne again,” he said.Melbourne electronic producers Filthy Lucre had a “huge influence” on the track, Kelly said. “[They] took a minor hit and thoroughly re-tooled it, stripping out many of its elements, including most of the English vocals, and turning it into an international dancefloor banger that really put Yothu Yindi on the map.”The most recent Australian song on the list is another call to arms disguised as an electronic banger: 2008’s My People by the Presets. Written by Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes, the track is a protest song about Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers. Its lyrics – “I’m here with all of my people / locked up with all of my people” – were written as a declaration of solidarity. “Its political message may be less immediately apparent to listeners today, but its ferocity remains,” the panel said.The Easybeats’ 1966 garage-rock anthem Friday on My Mind – written by founding members Harry Vanda and George Young – was honoured for capturing the “restless energy of a generation hungry for romance and escape”.Ruby Hunter’s 1990 song Down City Streets, initially recorded for Archie Roach’s album Charcoal Lane, about displacement as a member of the Stolen Generations, and Helen Reddy’s feminist anthem I Am Woman were also included. Both songs were praised by the panel for their personal storytelling and for resonating with listeners after their lifetimes.Neil Murray’s My Island Home, released by the Warumpi Band in 1987 and covered by Christine Anu in 1995, was chosen for its evolution over time and “enduring pull of home and belonging”.Loader was personally stoked to see Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning – written by Peter Garrett, Rob Hirst and Jim Moginie – on the list. “I remember being a child and hearing it for the first time and understanding Australian history and culture in a whole new way,” she said. “It was almost an awakening.“For those messages to still be so powerful and important [years later], to me that speaks volumes to the power of incredible songwriting.”The first 10 songs are not all commercial releases. The score to 1998 film The Boys, written by avant garde jazz trio the Necks, was included for its “unsettling” and “off-kilter” qualities. And Peter Sculthorpe’s 11-minute Earth Cry, featuring William Barton playing the yidaki (didgeridoo), made the list for its ability to capture “the vastness of Australia”.The list will continue to grow and evolve each year, with a new panel appointed to select 10 more songs.To be eligible, the songs must have been written or co-written by an Australian Apra member, be at least a decade old, and have a demonstrable cultural impact.“We see this first list as a great conversation starter,” Loader said. “There were a couple of commercially successful, huge songs that were a shoo-in for this list, but we decided we would let the songbook grow over time and become a conversation about what is a really significant Australian song … It’ll be really interesting to see in 10 years’ time what that songbook will look like.”The first 10 songs inducted into the National Songbook Beds Are Burning by Midnight Oil (1987) Down City Streets by Ruby Hunter (1990) Earth Cry by Peter Sculthorpe (1990) Friday on My Mind by the Easybeats (1966), written by Harry Vanda and George Young I Am Woman by Helen Reddy, written by Reddy and Ray Burton (1971) My Island Home, written by Neil Murray and released by Warumpi Band (1987) and Christine Anu (1995) My People by the Presets (2007) The Boys soundtrack by The Necks (1998) Treaty by Yothu Yindi (1991) Waltzing Matilda (1927) Allow content provided by a third party?This article includes content hosted on embed.music.apple.com. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.