'69 was the year that I was born
It was also the year that a company called Rio Tinto Zinc
Opened up a copper mine
On a little tropical island paradise, yeah
Not far from Australian shores
By the time I was twenty years of age
A billion tons of waste
Had poured into the Jaba River
All thirty-five kilometres of its length
>From spring to delta poisoned dead.
The islanders tried
For many years they complained
They lobbied and they campaigned
But their words fell on deaf ears
Many of them died working in the mine
The risk to find that they still couldn't earn enough
To feed their families
The labourer's wives with hungry mouths to feed
Had to sell their bodies on the streets
To workers from overseas
Who were paid twice what the local men received
And all food, clothing, medicine, everything
All owned by the company
And they cried
"Land is our life, it is our only life
It is food, it is sustenance
Land is our life, it is our social life
It is marriage it is status
It is security, it is politics
In fact, it is our only world
Land is our life, and if you take our land
You're cutting out the very heart of our existence"
Bruno said "I worked for the mine
The company denied they were the cause of any of the damage
But our fruit trees no longer bore fruit
Their leaves were killed by acid rain
There are no fish in the river
The damage they did will be here forever
We workers went on strike,
But still our words weren't heeded
So something more was needed
So in the end, a few of us
In the middle of the night
With the company's own explosives
Yes, forced the mine to close
and when the riot squads arrived we were singing
Land is our life..............etc"
Marcelline said
"The PNG, they can never win our hearts
They killed my brother
We cannot accept it, we cannot forget our loved ones
They have killed us in cold murder
We never had anything like this before
The only place I saw anything similar
Was on that Television of yours.......Ahhh---"
The troops poured in
Armed and funded by the Australian government
Yeah, they reigned fire on unarmed villagers
Raped and pillaged, yes
Long before Spicer, long before Sandline
Sticks and stones, and arrows and bows
Were all the islanders had when they started
But ten years later on, with home-made guns
And vehicles run on coconut oil, yeah
They're still there singin'
"Land is our life..........."etc
So you see, we must agree
'Cause we have so much in common
More than humanity, more than regional ah----
Because land is our life, it is our only life
It is food, it is sustenance
Land is our life, it is our social life
It part of marriage and it's certainly part of status
It is security, it is politics
In fact, this is our only world
Land is our life, and if we destroy that land
We're cutting out the very heart of our existence"
Ah-ha...........
Sidmouth Song
Today loneliness gnaws at my insides
A small spiky creature claws at my guts
No placebos at my disposal will do
Not alcohol, not other drugs
And your company's no comfort
Another long walk in the sun
The Southern rocks of a Northern land
The jagged coast of my ancestral home
I'd have thought it would mean more to me
Perhaps after all, I am antipodean
I know you're concerned 'bout my state of mind
I say "No I'm fine!" but I think - yes, well you might.
A Little inconsistency goes a long way to undermine my image
You define, define, define
My strengths, my weaknesses and how I can be expected to react
The Garden of Eden is riddled with land mines
The green and pleasant land inside a heart
But this is what humans do with paradise
Or the wide, brown one that's really in my soul
Well it's as good as any other place to start
Lately I've felt a touch dislocated
The things I do, I say not quite appropriate
The things by which I have navigated are irrelevant and far away
Without your life
You come to realise your true size
I defy, defy, defy the lines
I've never known such claustrophobia
More s***e is required for a chafing heart
I who had been so affectionate
Now feel I want to make my home on Mars
It was also the year that a company called Rio Tinto Zinc
Opened up a copper mine
On a little tropical island paradise, yeah
Not far from Australian shores
By the time I was twenty years of age
A billion tons of waste
Had poured into the Jaba River
All thirty-five kilometres of its length
>From spring to delta poisoned dead.
The islanders tried
For many years they complained
They lobbied and they campaigned
But their words fell on deaf ears
Many of them died working in the mine
The risk to find that they still couldn't earn enough
To feed their families
The labourer's wives with hungry mouths to feed
Had to sell their bodies on the streets
To workers from overseas
Who were paid twice what the local men received
And all food, clothing, medicine, everything
All owned by the company
And they cried
"Land is our life, it is our only life
It is food, it is sustenance
Land is our life, it is our social life
It is marriage it is status
It is security, it is politics
In fact, it is our only world
Land is our life, and if you take our land
You're cutting out the very heart of our existence"
Bruno said "I worked for the mine
The company denied they were the cause of any of the damage
But our fruit trees no longer bore fruit
Their leaves were killed by acid rain
There are no fish in the river
The damage they did will be here forever
We workers went on strike,
But still our words weren't heeded
So something more was needed
So in the end, a few of us
In the middle of the night
With the company's own explosives
Yes, forced the mine to close
and when the riot squads arrived we were singing
Land is our life..............etc"
Marcelline said
"The PNG, they can never win our hearts
They killed my brother
We cannot accept it, we cannot forget our loved ones
They have killed us in cold murder
We never had anything like this before
The only place I saw anything similar
Was on that Television of yours.......Ahhh---"
The troops poured in
Armed and funded by the Australian government
Yeah, they reigned fire on unarmed villagers
Raped and pillaged, yes
Long before Spicer, long before Sandline
Sticks and stones, and arrows and bows
Were all the islanders had when they started
But ten years later on, with home-made guns
And vehicles run on coconut oil, yeah
They're still there singin'
"Land is our life..........."etc
So you see, we must agree
'Cause we have so much in common
More than humanity, more than regional ah----
Because land is our life, it is our only life
It is food, it is sustenance
Land is our life, it is our social life
It part of marriage and it's certainly part of status
It is security, it is politics
In fact, this is our only world
Land is our life, and if we destroy that land
We're cutting out the very heart of our existence"
Ah-ha...........
Sidmouth Song
Today loneliness gnaws at my insides
A small spiky creature claws at my guts
No placebos at my disposal will do
Not alcohol, not other drugs
And your company's no comfort
Another long walk in the sun
The Southern rocks of a Northern land
The jagged coast of my ancestral home
I'd have thought it would mean more to me
Perhaps after all, I am antipodean
I know you're concerned 'bout my state of mind
I say "No I'm fine!" but I think - yes, well you might.
A Little inconsistency goes a long way to undermine my image
You define, define, define
My strengths, my weaknesses and how I can be expected to react
The Garden of Eden is riddled with land mines
The green and pleasant land inside a heart
But this is what humans do with paradise
Or the wide, brown one that's really in my soul
Well it's as good as any other place to start
Lately I've felt a touch dislocated
The things I do, I say not quite appropriate
The things by which I have navigated are irrelevant and far away
Without your life
You come to realise your true size
I defy, defy, defy the lines
I've never known such claustrophobia
More s***e is required for a chafing heart
I who had been so affectionate
Now feel I want to make my home on Mars