"The Dead Heart" is a song by Australian rock band Midnight Oil. It was first released as a single in Australia in 1986 and in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1988 after it had been included on the 1987 album, '' Diesel and Dust''. It peaked at number four on the Australian singles chart and at number 11 on the U.S. Mainstream rock chart. At the 1986 Countdown Australian Music Awards, the song was nominated for Best Single. In January 2018, as part of

Triple M Triple M is an Australian commercial radio network owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo. The network consists of 40 radio stations broadcasting a mainstream rock music format and 5 digital radio stations. The network dates back to ...

's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "The Dead Heart" was ranked number 76.

Background

The song deals with the mistreatment of indigenous Australians and the nonrecognition of indigenous cultures in Australia, and was part of efforts to raise awareness of Australia's

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church mis ...

- the forcible removal of Australian Aboriginal children from their families between 1909 and the 1970s. Midnight Oil recorded "The Dead Heart" for the handing back ceremony of

Uluru Uluru (; pjt, Uluṟu ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the Northern Territory, southwest of Alice Spring ...

(Ayers Rock) to its traditional Aboriginal owners. The band was then invited to tour through some of the most remote communities in the Australian outback with the Aboriginal group, the Warumpi Band, a tour that was known as the Blackfella/ Whitefella tour.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dead Heart, The 1986 singles 1988 singles Midnight Oil songs Columbia Records singles 1986 songs Songs written by Rob Hirst Songs written by Jim Moginie Songs written by Peter Garrett Songs written by Martin Rotsey