Own Backyard - Horrorshow, Jimblah, Horrorshow feat. Jimblah

What should I do-oo-oo-o-oo-oo?

What should I do-oo-oo-ooo-oo?

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

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

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

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