Music

Gloria Brancatisano / February 4, 2021

Just Announced

Midnight Oil announce Makarrata Live 2021 outdoor concert tour

These gigs will seek to elevate The Uluru Statement From The Heart

Midnight Oil is set to perform a run of special outdoor concerts called Makarrata Live in early 2021.

The unique concert event will see the band joined on stage by an incredible lineup of First Nations collaborators including Dan Sultan, Alice Skye, Troy Cassar-Daley, Tasman Keith, and Leah Flanagan, as Midnight Oil perform music from their recently released, twelfth album The Makarrata Project alongside iconic Midnight Oil songs of Reconciliation from throughout their career.  

The album – which marked Midnight Oil’s first new music in almost two decades – features the voices of an incredible array of established and emerging Indigenous musicians including Jessica Mauboy, Dan Sultan, Alice Skye, Kev Carmody, and the late Gurrumul.

At the release of the album, Midnight Oil said, “After centuries of struggle for recognition and justice, 2017’s Uluru Statement from the Heart called for the establishment of a ‘First Nations Voice’ enshrined in the Australian Constitution and the establishment of a ‘Makarrata Commission’ to supervise agreement-making and truth-telling between governments and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.” They also donated their share of proceeds from the release to organisations seeking to elevate the statement and Indigenous reconciliation more broadly.

The Makarratta Live gigs will seek to elevate The Uluru Statement From The Heart which calls for a Makarrata – or “truth telling” – to account for the theft of lands and displacement of First Nations people. 

“We’re relieved and excited at the thought of finally playing music to live audiences again,” Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett says. “Lots of the songs which have struck the deepest chords with our audiences over the years, like ‘Beds Are Burning’, ‘Jimmy Sharman’s Boxers’, ‘The Dead Heart’ and ‘Truganini’, revolve around Indigenous issues so we’re definitely inspired to be playing a set that combines older songs like those with newer songs that share similar lyrical themes.”

“The most fulfilling part of The Makarrata Project came through collaborating with so many First Nations artists during those recording sessions,” guitarist and keyboard player Jim Moginie says. “I think everyone’s looking forward to seeing what shape all the music from different eras takes as those gifted singers add their voices to it live.”

Midnight Oil will take their Makarrata Live tour around Australia in February and March 2021. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketmaster.com.au.