Calling cards don’t come much more layered and resonant than “Treaty”, the 1991 track that made Yothu Yindi a household name in Australia. But it almost didn’t break through, despite being co-written by Paul Kelly and following well-received support tours with Tracy Chapman and Neil Young. In fact, it took a dance remix from Filthy Lucre to make it a hit—peaking just shy of the ARIA Top 10—and to properly announce the group’s socially conscious blend of modern pop-rock with traditional Aboriginal lyrics and instrumentation. Formed in 1986 from two existing groups—one white, one Aboriginal—Yothu Yindi took its name from the phrase meaning “child and mother” in the Yolngu language spoken by its members hailing from the Northern Territory’s Arnhem Land region. Featuring schoolteacher turned lead singer Mandawuy Yunupingu and future solo artist Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu on various instruments, the band helped to introduce First Nations music to the Australian mainstream, furthering the push made by preceding acts like No Fixed Address and Coloured Stone (whose shared member Bart Willoughby played drums for Yothu Yindi on their landmark 1988 tour supporting Midnight Oil across North America). While the 1989 debut album Homeland Movement split its first and second halves between original rock songs and new arrangements of traditional music, Tribal Voice blended those components into something uniquely fresh, while still including traditional dances and ceremonies in the live setting and lyrics that packed meaningful cultural symbolism. Droning didgeridoo and ironwood clapsticks appear early into opener “Gapu”, while other tracks dabble in everything from reggae licks (“Matjala”) to punky distortion (“Gapirri”). Specialising in sing-alongs with a strong moral compass, the band were at their most powerful on the title track, a call to resist apathy and make your voice heard that even lists off individual Yolngu clans. Backlit with a smouldering guitar solo and rock-style drumbeat, it’s completed by the rallying refrain “Better listen to your tribal voice.” Equally convincing is “Treaty”, sung in both English and Yolngu languages. A bold rebuttal to colonialism, the song calls for immediate action on a treaty between the Australian government and the country’s Indigenous peoples. Running deep with feeling, it proclaims: “This land was never given up/This land was never bought and sold.” Thanks to that savvy dance mix of “Treaty”—which even appeared in the hit Hollywood movie Encino Man—the album went on to score five ARIA Awards and achieve double-platinum sales in Australia. More importantly, it meant that millions of people could absorb Yothu Yindi’s courageous demands for the future (“Hope”). The reverberations have continued to spread in the decades since, with the band releasing an updated 2018 version of “Treaty” featuring worthy successors in guitarist Gavin Campbell and rapper Baker Boy.