Where are the Songs of the Australian Republic?

Julianne Schulz talks about recent generations of Australians being inspired by the music of our own popular songwriters and bands as their compositions and songs moved into the mainstream since the 1970s – but she could have just as easily added the best known works and voices of some of our classical music composers and opera singers – to feel the cause of Indigenous Australians and inspire their support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and same sex marriage. She says “Culture almost always leads politics” and refers to the rapid transformation of the Republic of Ireland that has embraced and majority voted for constitutional change in recent years in a once deeply conservative country governed by the doctrines of the Catholic Church as reflected in its Constitution. She says music is the key to achieving similar far-reaching change in Australia. WfaAR comment: so where is the music of the longed-for Australian Republic? Apart from a single song by Midnight Oil on one of their early albums, we can’t think of any – are we pursuing a cause that can’t be felt? [“Australia’s music can remind us why we need an Indigenous voice” by Julianne Schulz, The Guardian online, 6 August 2023].