Wildheart protest injustice against Indigenous communities with new single

The way that our government has treated and continues to treat Indigenous communities is shameful. That’s a well-known fact, and yet we continue to see leaders refusing to listen to and learn from them. It appears even still that there’s no move to put a meaningful plan in place, and Brisbane melodic hardcore act Wildheart have something to say about it.

On their new single ‘Backburner’, vocalist Axel Best expresses his perspective on “the government’s continuous refusal to listen, learn and adopt indigenous techniques that were used for thousands of years to preserve and care for the land.”

Indeed, traditional fire burning methods used by Aboriginal people have been implemented in land management for more than centuries. With other countries globally beginning to take notice and learn from these techniques, it’s a blight on our country’s history that the practice has been ignored for so long. A Yugambeh man, Best notes that the track “was written after Australia bore witness to the worst bushfires we have ever seen.”

‘Backburner’ also features the words of Muruwari and Budjiti man Bruce Shillingsworth. Taken from the ABC’s Q&A program, Shillingsworth’s words call upon Australia to “wake up”. In discussing the use of his speech in the track with Best, Shillingsworth reinforced: “I believe, and you also believe, that there is an important message to tell the world. Change has to come – We are now guided by our ancestors and spirits to go forward and light up the flames, they can’t put us on the back burner.”

We’re sure to see more to come from Wildheart, who are already taking on an incredibly important role in speaking up on the issues affecting the people around them. With a slot booked in for the sold out Fireball Fest coming up later this month, ‘Backburner’ will see the live display it deserves, with an outstanding call to arms for all of us to pull our weight in affecting change.