Something Worth Fighting For: Aussie protest songs with John Shortis

Luke Hickey: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the National Library of Australia. It's great to see a packed theatre. I said to John and Moya before, "No pressure, but there is a massive crowd out there, so don't let us down." I'm the Assistant Director General of the Engagement Branch here at the Library, which is a long, boring way of saying I get to look after all of the cool things here at the Library. Tonight is one of those examples. Thank you for attending this event, coming to you from Ngunnawal and Ngambri country. And I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we're meeting today. Australia's First Nations people and traditional owners and custodians of the lands have had a long connection to this land for tens of thousands of years. We want to extend our respect and give our respect to their elders past, present, and emerging, and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

This evening's event, Something Worth Fighting For, Aussie Protest Songs, is presented by John Shortis, the 2024 National Folk Fellow. The National Folk Fellowship has been offered by the National Library and the National Folk Festival since 2004. It's a partnership that has celebrated the Library's significant collections of folklore and related material here in Australia, as well as the contemporary folk performers and researchers who bring the collection to life through their own creative works, some of which you're going to see tonight. And tonight we're celebrating with our 2024 National Folk Fellow John Shortis.

For those of you who aren't aware, I think in this audience that's probably very few, but John is a songwriter, a musician, and researcher who creates original cabaret shows based on history and politics. For his Folk Fellowship, John researched the many oral history recordings, sheet music, manuscripts, newspapers, and pictures held here at the National Library, and used those to seek out songs and stories of protest from World War I until now. John's Folk Fellowship proposal was both exciting and challenging, but the potential outcome was irresistible to the committee, and tonight you'll get to see why.

John is accompanied tonight by his partner Moya Simpson. And Moya is a singer and choir leader with a passion for world music. And the Worldly Goods Choir that was formed by Moya in 1998 and might have also entertained some of us during those Covid lockdowns as well. Please join me in welcoming John, Moya, and the Worldly Goods Choir for tonight's event. Over to you.

Moya Simpson: What do we want?

Worldly Goods Choir: No dams.

Moya Simpson: When do we want it?

Worldly Goods Choir: Now.

Moya Simpson: What do we want?

Worldly Goods Choir: No dams.

Moya Simpson: When do we want it?

Worldly Goods Choir: Now.

Moya Simpson: What do we want?

Worldly Goods Choir: No dams.

Moya Simpson: When do we want it?

Worldly Goods Choir: Now.

Moya Simpson: What do we want?

Worldly Goods Choir: No dams.

Moya Simpson: When do we want it?

Worldly Goods Choir: Now.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Oh, Tasmania, the hardest heart would understand.

Just to feel your wilderness, your silence sings to me.

So let the Franklin flow, let the wild lands be.

The wilderness should be strong and free.

From Kutikina to the southwest shore.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

A thousand people being arrested and bailed.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

Horses riding in the wilderness saying.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

So let the Franklin flow, let the wild lands be.

The wilderness should be strong and free.

From Kutikina to the southwest shore.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

We fell the forest and we scar the land.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

Desecrated with greedy hands.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

So let the Franklin flow, let the wild lands be.

The wilderness should be strong and free.

From Kutikina to the southwest shore.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

So let the Franklin flow, let the wild lands be.

The wilderness should be strong and free.

From Kutikina to the southwest shore.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

Moya Simpson: Okay, we've got the right audience. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Something Worth Fighting For, the story of Australian protesters and their songs. I'm Moya Simpson, and this is John Shortis, as you heard, the 2024 Folk Fellow at the National Library and the writer and researcher of what you're about to hear. And behind me are the rowdy rabble rousers. We opened with "Let the Franklin flow" written by Shane Howard of Goanna fame. And he was very happy for John to use one line out of his song for the title of this project, Something Worth Fighting For. Now as a Folk Fellow, Mr. Shortis spent four weeks at the National Library Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00, briefcase in hand, punctual like a good public servant. He was even given a lanyard to allow him entry to the desk in the bowels of the Library. But just to prove that musicians aren't really made for that sort of thing, his lanyard fell apart on day one.

John Shortis: But don't get me wrong, I loved it. Spending weeks on end delving through sheet music and oral histories and books and manuscripts and posters and online resources, I was in heaven.

Moya Simpson: Yep. There's nothing that Shortis enjoys more than being locked in the National Library, his spiritual home, researching the songs and stories of Australia's political and musical history.

John Shortis: I took my research back to First World War when the then Prime Minister Billy Hughes tried to bring in conscription on two separate occasions by referendum. The women's peace groups that grew out of the suffragette movement were very active in opposing Billy, and they practised civil disobedience. They threw eggs, they heckled, some of them got even banned for singing their anti-conscription songs.

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): I didn't raise my son to be a soldier.

I brought him up to be my pride and joy.

Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder.

To kill some other mother's darling boy.

The nations ought to arbitrate their quarrels.

It's time to put the saw and gun away.

There will be no more of fighting.

If us Mothers all would say.

John Shortis (singing): Who's that knocking at the door.

Who's that knocking at the door.

If it's Hughes and his wife, we will chase him with a knife.

And they won't come knocking anymore.

No, they won't come knocking anymore.

Why don't you join.

Why don't you join.

Why don't you join Billy Hughes's army?

Why don't you join.

Why don't you join.

Why don't you join Billy Hughes's army.

Six bob a day and nothing to eat.

Great big boots and blisters on his feet.

Who wants to join.

Who wants to join.

Why don't you join Billy Hughes's army.

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): I didn't raise my son to be a soldier.

I brought him up to be my pride and joy.

Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder

To kill some other mother's darling boy.

Moya Simpson: Opposition to conscription was widespread. Irish Catholics who were anti-British, other religions, especially Quakers who were on the side of peace, farmers who feared a labour shortage, but of course, women, the ones who would actually be losing their sons.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): I didn't raise my son to be a soldier.

I brought him up to be my pride and joy.

Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder.

To kill some other mother's darling boy.

John Shortis: Thank you. Well, you don't need to get a fellowship to know that the golden age of protest songs was the '60s and the '70s. It was almost like a genre of popular music often rising to the dizzy heights of the Top 40. But most of those songs were American. That all changed though in 1965 when Gary Shearston, Australian folk singer, brought out an album called "Australian Broadsides". And it was 100% Australian composed protest songs. Now, very well-known folkie Bob Fagan said to me that he was gobsmacked when he first heard it. It was at a time when he was just getting into playing folk music, and it fanned the flame of political song within him.

Moya Simpson: Now, this anti-conscription song comes from that very album, and it was written by Gary Shearston.

John Shortis (singing): As I was walking down the street all on me 20th birthday, oh.

The government man, he said to me, well, you look fine in khaki, oh.

The government is in need of men, come hear our proclamation, oh.

Two years conscription, life for you will be a fine vacation, oh.

John Shortis and Moya Simpson (singing): And it's true, me lads. It's true, me lads.

To tell the truth, I'm bound, oh.

There's always trouble in the air with elections coming round, oh.

John Shortis: I was one of 800,000 twenty year olds who had to register for national service even though we couldn't vote until we were 21. And it was called the Death Lottery. And what happened was every date of the year went into a barrel. If your birthdate was chosen, you're in the army for two years. No one was happier than I was when I received my letter telling me that I'd not been chosen.

John Shortis (singing): Well, it may be so I said to him, but tell me if you can, oh.

If I'm old enough to carry a gun, am I old enough to vote? Oh.

If I'm sent to fight in a foreign land, not warring with Australia, oh.

What will you give us a guarantee I'll not come home in our coffin, oh.

John Shortis and Moya Simpson (singing): And it's true, me lads. It's true, me lads.

To tell the truth, I'm bound, oh.

There's always trouble in the air with elections coming round, oh.

John Shortis (singing): So to fighting other people's wars, don't get yourself conscripted, oh.

Don't get yourself conscripted, oh.

If Australian soil we must defend, then let's all volunteer, oh.

I have no desire to see the world with a bayonet in my hand, oh.

John Shortis and Moya Simpson (singing): So I tip me hat to the government man and walked on down the street, oh.

John Shortis: Protest is, of course, a sign of a very healthy democracy, which means that people on both sides of the fence, no matter what political opinion they may have, has equal right to protest. But I'll have to say after my research that the left seems to have a monopoly on protest songs. I tried desperately to find some on the other side. I did find a couple. Here's one. This was a song, it's actually an American song, patriotic American song, which was sung in Australia by some of the people who supported conscription. And the song basically says that the only red that we want is the red that is in the red, white, and blue in the Stars and Stripes.

Moya Simpson (singing): We know the red we want is the red we've got in the old red, white, and blue.

It's the right red, not the wrong red, and the old flag knows it too.

We've got a true blue red flying overhead waving free to see us through.

The only red we want is the red we've got in the old red, white, and blue.

Moya Simpson: And here's another song about a conscientious objector. This one was written by Don Henderson.

John Shortis (singing): Well, I'm an Australian. I'm 20 years old.

I went down to the barracks as I'd been told.

While waiting for the officer in charge to call my name.

I lit a cigarette with my Ronson's Mary flame.

But something was not right with it.

And as the flame grew higher.

My call-up papers accidentally caught on fire.

John Shortis and Moya Simpson (singing): In court the army said, this man, and pointed straight at me.

Moya Simpson (singing): Won't fight for king and country, church, or BHP.

John Shortis (singing): The magistrate swore sagely in turning to me said.

Moya Simpson (singing): What if a Vietcong attacked your mother in her bed?

John Shortis (singing): I said, well, they're not here yet, and if perchance they come.

I'll run down to the TAB and put five quid on mum.

John Shortis and Moya Simpson (singing): I'll run down to the TAB and put five quid on mum, mum.

Moya Simpson: Well, speaking of mums, they once again played a big part in this anti-conscription movement with a group called Save Our Souls, SOS, an Emergency. Women from all walks of life joined, some who'd never even thought of protesting before, but they soon learnt the ropes and they did things like-

John Shortis: Chained themselves to Parliament house.

Moya Simpson: Turned up at the Melbourne Cup in anti-war fashions.

John Shortis: Organised underground movements to hide conscientious objectors.

Moya Simpson: Hijacked a Billy Graham rally, to name but a few.

John Shortis: Well, civil disobedience as practised by these women has been a part of protests since time immemorial. But in recent years, recent months really, state governments in Australia have brought in fairly strict rules that actually outlaw certain types of civil disobedience and increased the-

Audience member 1: Happy birthday.

John Shortis: Thank you. Increased the fines to up to $50,000 and the prison sentences for two years. But without civil disobedience, would some of the changes that have been achieved have actually happened?

Moya Simpson: Well, one man who could teach the current lot of premiers a thing or two about restrictive protest laws is good old Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland from 1968 to 1987. He managed to ban not just civil disobedience, but all forms of protest.

John Shortis: And you'll be pleased to know that here in the Library, I found a lot of Joh's quotes, which we will be sharing with you tonight, like this one.

Moya Simpson: "If they want to march up Queen Street to disrupt the comings and goings and goings and comings of ordinary, decent people, well, we won't let them."

John Shortis: Yes, Joh Bjelke-Petersen banned street marches in 1977, which led to some violent clashes between police and protesters. What is wrong with Queensland, Joh?

Moya Simpson: "You know, the trouble with Queensland is that it gets branded as being part of Australia."

John Shortis: The media actually captured some of the brutality on camera.

Moya Simpson: "The greatest thing that could happen to the state and the nation is when we get rid of all the media and we could all live in peace and tranquillity and nobody would know anything."

John Shortis: Wiser words were never spoken. Well, I had a look in the sheet music collection here at the Library, and I found two songs written about Joh. One was written by John Schumann of Redgum and one by Greg Macainsh of Skyhooks.

John Shortis (singing): Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, he's the flying peanut.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Goodbye, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

He's the flying peanut. Goodbye, Joh.

John Shortis (singing): Well, I spent too long in the deep north, the land of the big peanut.

It ain't that great in the police state, they burned down the hippies huts.

They turn back the clocks a decade, arrest you for no reason.

The sun shines the whole year round.

The shotgun's still in season.

And get me over the border.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Over the border.

John Shortis (singing): Over the border.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Over the border.

John Shortis (singing): Over the border.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Down to New South wales.

Moya Simpson (singing): Can you hear me, Bjelke-Petersen, from your leather padded chair.

There's a tide outside your door that's slowly rising.

It's a simple case of freedom and a lot of us who care.

And if demonstrations aren't enough.

Well, I hope you've sent your prayers.

You think the battle's over.

Well, the war has just begun.

Your legislation's just a piece of tissue.

Won't you listen to the beat of 10,000 marching feet.

Taking to the street.

John Shortis (singing): Get me over the border.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Over the border.

John Shortis (singing): Over the border.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Over the border.

John Shortis (singing): Over the border.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Down to New South Wales.

John Shortis (singing): Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, he's the flying peanut.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Goodbye, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

He's the flying peanut. Goodbye, Joh.

Moya Simpson: Well, luckily for us, Joh has wise and wonderful remarks about just about everything. So we will be sharing his pearls of wisdom throughout the whole of Something Worth Fighting For, you lucky people.

John Shortis: Something to look forward to. Be very afraid. Well, now to the subject of climate change. And some of the recent protests include the school kids' climate strike. On another occasion, some school kids who actually took the then Minister for Environment, Susan Lee, to court and won and then lost on appeal. Then there is the group Extinction Rebellion founded six years ago in England. And their methods are disruptive, nonviolent, organised, and non-resistant to arrest. People of all ages are attracted to groups like this, including many senior citizens, the reason being that they fear for the world that we are leaving behind for our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

Moya Simpson: And we know all about it because one of our former choir singers is in her 80s and is a proud member. I do believe she might be here tonight. And our Margaret got herself arrested. She got herself arrested in an Extinction Rebellion protest in 2021 when she superglued herself to the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge here in Canberra at peak hour to protest against ScoMo's climate change policy.

John Shortis: I looked in the Library for her story, and I found it when I went to the newspaper collection there in the Canberra Times in full colour, mid-glueing , is our Margaret holding up traffic in all directions. Now, on another occasion, she asked me if I would write a song for the group to sing. She gave me a title and an idea of what should be in the song to sing while they glued themselves to Parliament house. Well, the song actually never got sung because it was around the time that the Queen went and died and also the anti-vaxxers came to Canberra. So the chances of getting media coverage for a mere glueing were a bit limited. But the song lives on, and here it is. We're going to sing it for you tonight, For All the Children of the Planet, All Creatures, Great and Small.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): For all the children, all the planet, all creatures, great and small.

For the oceans with their several shades of deep.

For the shorelines disappearing and the bushland that's afire.

For the future that is looming we weep.

For the future that is looming we weep.

For all the rivers overflowing, the cities lost in haze.

And the coral that is fading as we sing.

For the ice caps in the arctic that are counting down the days.

For the future that is looming we weep.

For the future that is looming we weep.

John Shortis: And speaking of climate change, what did Joh Bjelke-Petersen have to say about the Great Barrier Reef?

Moya Simpson: "The reef is really big. The people who say it's being ruined don't know how big it is." These are actual quotes.

John Shortis: And there's many more. Like I said, be very afraid. Now to change to something completely different, ragtime music. Ragtime music was really big. It was the latest thing at the beginning of the 20th century, so much so that a lot of our songwriters here in Australia, composers, would often write a miscellaneous instrumental tune and put the word rag in the title, and suddenly they were fashionable. So I put the rag into the catalogue search, the word rag into the catalogue search at the National Library, and up popped 671 titles. See what I mean? And among them were the Gumleaf Rag, the Bunyip Rag, the Procrastination Rag, and the Stevedore's Rag.

John Shortis (singing): Long live the Stevedore's Rag

Moya Simpson: Yes, a rag for Wharfies, which is really relevant to our topic because the unions were so much part of the disruption of protests. Especially the Waterside Workers Union. For instance, in 1951, a group of young people were invited to attend a world peace festival, youth peace festival in East Berlin.

John Shortis: And the organisers of the festival asked that some of the Australian delegates be Aboriginal, but the Menzies government wouldn't allow them to have passports. After all, they weren't counted in the census by then. Well, enter the Wharfies. They just said, "Okay, we'll just close every port in Australia." Miraculously, the passports appeared

John Shortis (singing): Along with the Stevedore's Rag.

Moya Simpson: Well, a boat full of lefties was an ideal target for ASIO, so they placed officers on the wharf and on the ship. John found this little ditty written by an 18-year-old called Neville who'd actually joined the voyage against his parents' wishes.

John Shortis: Let's move this a little bit. Sorry. The fingers in the... Okay.

John Shortis (singing): Goodbye. Mr. Menzies. Where do I begin?

I'll start that one again because I started with the second verse instead of the first.

Oh, goodbye. Mr. Menzies and Arnie Fadden too.

We're going off to Berlin, and we won't be missed by you.

Your government's a failure. Arbitration is a fuss.

So you can shove conscription up your bull-eye pass.

John Shortis: Sing it.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): You can shove conscription up your bull-eye pass.

John Shortis (singing): Goodbye. Mr. Menzies. Where do I begin?

No passport for a delegate because you don't like his skin.

When the Wharfies close the port, then maybe you will find.

A very sudden reason why you might just change your mind.

Oh, goodbye, Mr. Menzies and Arnie Fadden too.

We're going off to Berlin, and we won't be missed by you.

Your government's a failure. Arbitration is a fuss.

So you can shove conscription up your bull-eye pass.

John Shortis: Everybody.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): You can shove conscription up your bull-eye pass.

John Shortis: Well, it has often been said that the best way, the best form of protest is at the ballot box where we all get to put a mark for our favourite party or whatever at elections and at referendums like the recent Voice to Parliament referendum.

Moya Simpson: One day John came back from the Library all excited because they'd given him an exclusive preview of all the ephemera associated with the voice referendum. There were T-shirts, shopping bags, baseball caps, car stickers, coffee cups from both sides of the argument, as far as the eye could see.

John Shortis: Well, I might've been excited, but the electorate wasn't, didn't stand much of a chance though, without bipartisan support.

Unlike the 1967 referendum when both sides of politics got together to actually support a change to the Constitution, to allow Indigenous people, Aboriginal people to be counted in the census.

Moya Simpson: Hooray.

John Shortis: There was actually a jingle written by Australian screenwriter, Peter Best, that helped the historic win:

John Shortis (singing): Vote yes for Aborigines.

All parties say they think you should, vote yes to show the world the true Australian brotherhood.

Vote yes for Aborigines.

Moya Simpson: But another famous referendum was in 1951 when our then Prime Minister, Bob Menzies, affectionately known as Pig Iron Bob tried to ban the Communist party of Australia, and that was not really a surprise because he was always reminding us about the Reds under the beds.

Worldly Goods Choir: Reds under the beds,Reds under the beds, Reds under the beds, Reds under the beds.

John Shortis (singing): They'll appear everywhere in your ear, in your hair, in the ground, in the air, it is said.

In the cool, in the heat, at your school, on the street, wherever you retreat until you're dead.

In a fridge, in a pie, on the bridge, in the sky.

Everywhere you fix your eye or turn your head.

They will lurk every day at your work and your play from June until May until you're dead.

They're the-

Worldly Goods Choir: Reds under the beds, Reds under the beds, Reds under the beds, Reds under the beds.

Moya Simpson: The Communist Party of-

John Shortis: You'll clap anything!

Moya Simpson: The Communist Party of Australia was founded in the 1920s and by the time of that referendum had well over 20,000 members. It was ubiquitous when it came to supporting so many of the protests in the '50s, '60s and seventies. And in fact, in the words of poet, Dorothy Hewitt, if you had any sort of sense of social justice, there wasn't very much else to go to.

John Shortis: The words of this four-part round were written by one of the party members, Helen Palmer, and it says, "Pig-Iron Bob has got a referendum"

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Pig-Iron Bob has got a referendum, got a referendum Pig-Iron Bob.

Gives us rice just so that he can end them.

No to Pig-Iron Bob.

(overlapping singing)

John Shortis: And the results of the referendum:

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): No to Pig-Iron Bob.

Moya Simpson: But one thing you do have to say about Pig Iron Bob is he did have balls.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): No balls of Rob Menzies are wrinkled and crinkled.

Curvaceous and spacious as the dome of St Paul's.

The crowds they all muster to gaze at a cluster.

They stand and stare at the wondrous pair of Bob Menzies' balls balls balls balls balls balls balls balls.

Bob Menzies' balls.

Moya Simpson: I'm afraid they enjoy singing that far too much.

John Shortis: I mentioned earlier the landmark album by Gary Shearston called "Australian Broadsides", and in my research I found out that about half of the songs on that album, remember they were all Australian protest songs. Half of those songs began as poems that emerged from the Realist Writers group. A group set up by communist author Frank Hardy.

Moya Simpson: And one of those poems grew out of a meeting of the group in 1958. Dorothy Hewitt met a woman called Vera Deacon, and Vera told Dorothy her story of surviving the Great Depression whilst living on an island in the Hunter River, where the waters and the air were engulfed by the towering presence of the BHP Steelworks. Her poem, which was later set to music by Mike Layden, is now a classic in the Australian folk scene.

Moya Simpson (singing): On an island in the river.

How that bitter river ran.

I lived on scraps of charity.

In the best way that you can.

On an island in a river.

Where I grew to be a man.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): For dull grey's bitter bread.

Bitter bread and sour.

There's grief in the taste of it.

There's weevils in the flour.

There's weevils in the flour.

Moya Simpson (singing): And just across the river.

Stood the mighty BHP.

Poured pollution on the water.

Poured the lead of misery.

And it's smoke was black as Hades.

Flowing hungry to the sea.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): For dull grey's bitter bread.

Bitter bread and sour.

There's grief in the taste of it.

There's weevils in the flour.

There's weevils in the flour.

Moya Simpson (singing): In those humpies by the river.

Where we lived on dough and stew.

Well just across the water.

Those greedy smoke stacks grew.

And the hunger of the many.

Filled the bellies of the few.

John Shortis: Deacon says she was awed by the dark, angular industrial BHP standing out against the eastern sky. It's tall chimneys, belching out smoke. People who lived on the river had to catch fish to feed their families. Those fish were swimming in polluted waters.

Moya Simpson (singing): On an island in the river.

How that bitter river ran.

It broke the backs of charity.

And it baked the bread of man.

On an island on the river.

Where I grew to be a man.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing):

For dull grey's bitter bread.

Bitter bread and sour.

There's grief in the taste of it.

There's weevils in the flour.

There's weevils in the flour.

John Shortis: Thank you. Time for another peep into the wide and wonderful world of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. This time his thoughts on immigration.

Moya Simpson: "Just because a few migrants want their spicy tucker, I fail to see why the Australian community should suffer the possibility of foot-and-mouth disease."

John Shortis: Or in Joh's case, foot-in-mouth disease. Now you'd have to say that neither side of politics has been exemplary when it comes to the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in this country, which has been the reason for a lot of protests over many years. This next song was actually sung outside the Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia in 2005.

Moya Simpson (singing): Oh when they sailed across the sea.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Heave away ho away.

Moya Simpson (singing): They came here thinking they'd be free.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Here in South Australia

Moya Simpson (singing): They fled torture hurt and pain.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Heave away ho away.

Moya Simpson (singing): They came here and they got the same.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Here in South Australia.

Moya Simpson (singing): Heave away and hear me sing.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Heave away ho away.

Moya Simpson (singing): Here's to indefinite processing.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Here in South Australia.

Moya Simpson: The hardline policies facing boat arrivals really began in 2001 when a Norwegian ship, the Tampa, took on over 400 refugees from a leaky fishing boat. As soon as the boat tried to enter Australian waters, there was military intervention, resulting in those people being locked up. John came across this one, this song by one of the many song books brought out by the Shiny Bum Singers of Canberra, public servant satirists. And this one is by Chris Clarke.

Moya Simpson (singing): They, sinking at sea.

Sent out a plea.

"Please rescue me".

We didn't but should.

Isn't it good.

Norwegians would.

John Shortis and Moya Simpson (singing): We told them we'd get them come morning and started to laugh.

Then we tapped the phones of those acting up on their behalf.

Moya Simpson (singing): And when they awoke.

We sent in troops, put them in coops.

Didn't help them but should.

Isn't it good Norwegians would.

John Shortis: This next song is one of my gems of discovery. I'm really glad to have discovered this, because I don't think it's been out there where it belongs. I found it... Well first it was written by Doug Ashdown and Jimmy Stewart. You may know them from a very famous song, "Winter in America".

Well, Doug Ashdown was the warm-up act for someone completely different at the National Press Club. And there he was, did two songs. This one he sang because it was about to Refugee Week. It's called "Refugees Are Heroes".

Moya Simpson (singing): The heads of state and the heads of hate.

Breakers of people's dreams.

Sleep the sleep of the angels.

But our music of guns and screams.

10 million children still unborn will never make old bones.

They lie beneath the rolling green.

Screaming from the stones.

Few hearts can speak the language.

So I'll never understand.

Why love in the third world has to be just a dream of the promised land.

Why do headstones say they'll rest in peace in thousands of neat white rows.

When we can hear them calling us.

Screaming from the stones.

Forced out blind from the smoke but the ruins will live in your mind.

Forced out run from the blood but you can't leave your dead behind.

Refugees are heroes.

In the wars of the heart.

Refugees are heroes.

In the wars of the heart.

When you can't go home.

It's a war of the heart.

Pick up the lives you're leaving now.

Is there somethwere safe to go.

Will we understand your innocence.

In a language we dont know?

Will we let you raise your children here.

Will we let you call it home?

Or will we send you running once again.

Screaming from the stones.

Forced out grab what you can take the long dark road or die.

Forced out run from the blood but you sometimes wonder why.

Refugees are heroes in the wars of the heart.

Refugees are heroes in the wars of the heart.

When you can't go home.

It's the war of the heart.

Moya Simpson: Well, we're going to end the half of Something Worth Fighting For with the Unholy Alliance when sports and politics come face to face. There's been many recent examples. For instance, a pro-Palestinian message on cricketer's shoes.

John Shortis: Rainbow colours on footballers' jumpers.

Moya Simpson: Support of the voice to parliament referendum by sporting coats.

John Shortis: There of course has been Adam Goodes, Israel Folau. And this case, which I think is one of the most exciting times when sport and politics mixed. It happened at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in the year 2000. And it happened when Midnight Oil sang this song, wearing clothes emblazoned with one word: "Sorry."

Moya Simpson (singing): How can we dance when our earth is turning?

How can we sleep when our beds are burning?

Moya Simpson: John listened to Peter Garrett's oral history, he says that he wanted their actions to speak louder than words. Not to speak for Aboriginal people, but to say, "Hey, this is a terrible gap in what's happened." Partly because of that word.

He says they were just about to go on stage and the enormity of the occasion hit him: a global audience of 4 billion plus 120,000 in the stadium and hundreds of thousands more at giant video screens.

He says, he paused for a second. He looked around the stadium at the cameras and thought, "This is where we are." John Howard was in the audience. Not impressed. It took eight more years before the apology to the stolen generation.

Moya Simpson (singing): The time has come to say fair fair.

Pay the rent now pay our share.

The time has come our facts are fact.

It belongs to them we're gonna give it back.

John Shortis: Another fantastic occasion when sport and politics met, well, maybe not fantastic, memorable, I should say, was in 1971.

It was during the apartheid era in South Africa and an all-white South African rugby team, rugby Union team, toured Australia, the Springboks. For many people who'd never protested before it began them on a lifetime of activism.

And in the Library I found this amazing little guidebook for the protesters at the Springbok protests, and it was especially useful in Brisbane.

Moya Simpson: Where our beloved Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared a state of emergency and enclosed the rugby field in barbed wire to keep the protesters at a distance from the game.

John Shortis: In the guidebook it said smuggle in some whistles and then at irregular intervals just blow them and the players won't know which whistle to obey.

Worldly Goods Choir: Go home, Springboks! Go home, Springboks! Go home, Springboks! Go home, Springboks!

John Shortis: The president of the South African Rugby Union had this to say about the protesters:

Moya Simpson: "Dirty, long-haired ruffians suffering from delayed puberty."

John Shortis: You sounded just like Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Well, we're going to end this half with a song written by Valanga Khoza, a black South African man who lived through the horrors of apartheid and now lives in Melbourne.

Moya Simpson: He wrote it in 1978 at a United Nations refugee camp in Swaziland where he had actually escaped to. His song is called "Sombamba" and it translates as "Let's take Apartheid and throw it in the sea where it will drown."

John Shortis: Sopranos, altos, tenors, basses

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): (singing in language)

John Shortis: Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to the end of the first half of Something Worth Fighting For. We'll take short interval. There'll be a bar upstairs where the cafe is. Have a drink and we'll see you back here shortly.

Luke Hickey: Thanks. Thanks, John. There we go. Thanks. John, Moya and the choir. Fantastic. First half's taken us from the Franklin to the main streets of Queensland. So really looking forward to the second half. Margaret, if you could please refrain from glueing yourself to the door so we can be back in a prompt time. We do have refreshments up at Bookplate there. Be looking to be back in about half an hour and hopefully there'll be no arrests tonight. Thanks, and we'll see you soon. Thanks everyone.

Welcome back. One of the most compliant audiences we've ever had, so well done to all of you. But I think a reflection probably on how excited everyone is to see the second half of the performance. For those of you- we will have a little bit of a plug on this afterwards, but as you've heard a little bit already, the research that John's done on the collection and using of the collection material here, it's actually something that all of you can do. So, if you're wanting to find out more about the Library services, you can go to our website, you can search our catalogue, you can use Trove. If you haven't heard of Trove before, I'm sure someone in the audience alongside you probably can let you know about it. But all of these materials and more are available. But now over to the stars of the show, John, Moya, over to you.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Run, yes run the bastards over.

Run, yes run the bastards over.

Run, yes run the bastards over.

As I said to LBJ.

John Shortis: Welcome back to the second half of Something Worth Fighting For. We started there with "Run the Bastards Over" an approximation, of a famous phrase uttered by one-time Premier of New South Wales Robert Askin. Yes. And it was during the Vietnam war, Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJ, the President of the United States was visiting our shores. Not long after our prime minister, Harold Holt, had declared that we would go all the way with LBJ.

Moya Simpson (singing): Oh Lyndon B and me.

We're just like love birds in tree.

Oh yes siree.

Me and Lyndon B.

When Lyndon's in a jam.

Like needing troops for Vietnam.

He looks to me.

Oh Lyndon B.

Cause whatever he'll say.

I will obey.

All the way, all the way with LBJ.

John Shortis: When LBJ visited our shores, he was met with equal amounts of support and protest, especially as his motorcade drove through the streets of Sydney. Now, here in the Library, I actually found the oral history of Robert Askin, in which he says:

Moya Simpson: "I was very proud of the terrific welcome Sydney had given the leader of the free world, and then a handful of communists threw themselves, men and women, on the pavement in front of the cavalcade, and held up the progress of the president and frightened his bodyguard."

John Shortis: More importantly, the handful of communists. The handful of communists consisted of people like Bob Gould, who was a well-known secondhand bookseller in Sydney, and Graham Dunstan, who would go on to become one of the founders of the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin.

Now, in researching protest movements, the one thing that is ever present are the factions. Factions, the moderate versus the radical. Well, the moderates of this world, they wanted to do a nice peaceful march through the streets of Sydney as the motorcade went through. But the radicals, the Dunstans and the Goulds of this world, they wanted to be more disruptive, more from the Premier.

Moya Simpson: "I said to the superintendent of police, I don't care if they get gravel rash back sides, drag them off." And when the car drove on further, I said, 'I should have told him to run the bastards over.'"

John Shortis: Join us. Run!

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Run, yes run the bastards over.

Run, yes run the bastards over.

Run, yes run the bastards over.

As I said to LBJ.

As I said to LBJ.

Moya Simpson: Well, in his research, John discovered that that tune, the Battle Hymn of the Republic tune has been very popular in protest worlds.

And for example, in the women's movement...

Moya Simpson (singing): Mine eyes have seen the glory.

Of the flame of women's rage.

Keep smouldering for centuries now burning in this age.

We no longer will be prisoners in that same old gilded cage.

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): That's why we're marching on!

Move on over or we'll move on over you!

Move on over or we'll move on over you!

Move on over or we'll move on over you!

For women's time has come.

Moya Simpson (singing): You told us to speak softly, to be gentle and to smile.

Expected us to change ourselves with every passing style.

The only work for women was to clean and sweep and file.

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): That's why we're marching on!

Move on over or we'll move on over you!

Move on over or we'll move on over you!

Move on over or we'll move on over you!

For women's time has come.

Moya Simpson: One of the many oral histories John listened to with interest was with a Brisbane woman called Merle Thornton who died very recently. It turns out that she was the mother of the actress, Sigrid Thornton, and she talked about how for a long time publicans excluded women from public bars.

John Shortis: It was in the mid-sixties, and so she called a meeting with the appropriate minister in the Queensland government. And she said to him, yes, it was a him, that it was about time that this changed. Well, he was patronising, thought she was a bit of a joke, and she decided, well, the normal channels aren't going to work. So she and a friend went and chained themselves to the public bar in the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane. It also happened here in Canberra and I think a lot of other places, making sure that the media captured it.

Moya Simpson: "Now, I was at teacher's college in Huddersfield in Yorkshire, in 1967, and a friend and I, both Londoners and not used to the ways of the North, dared to enter a particular bar in a local pub that was traditionally all male. We ordered drinks and while the barman looked at us in horror, some old codger stood up from his well-worn seat and announced, "There's a bloody woman in here." He couldn't even count. While we didn't change the world, we did make our point."

John Shortis: It has been the case always that women in Australia get paid less than men because it's considered that men are the breadwinners. In 1969, this started to change with an equal pay case. But a recent report shows that despite many years of struggle, we are still a long way off from actual parity. Another of my gems that I found here in the Sheet Music Collection, handwritten musical notes and hand-typed lyrics by a Melbourne singer-songwriter by the name of Glen Tomasetti, and the book was called "Songs from a Railway Carriage". And hidden in the middle of them was this song, which has become a bit of an anthem of women's rights. It was written in 1969 to mark that equal pay case, but ironically, she chose to set her words to a really blokey Aussie folk song, "All Among the Wool Boys, All Among the Wool". 1, 2, 3, 4.

John Shortis and men of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): All among the wool boys, all among the wool.

Keep your blades full boys, keep your blades full.

I can do a respectable tally myself if ever I like to try.

They know me round the back backblocks as by Full Jack from Gundagai.

Moya Simpson: And it turned into this very influential anthem for women's rights.

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Don't be too polite, girls, don't be too polite.

Show a little fight, girls, show a little fight.

Don't be fearful of offending, in case you get the sack.

Just recognise your value and we won't look back.

Moya Simpson (singing): All among the bull, girls, all among the bull.

Keep your hearts full, girls, keep your hearts full.

What good is a man as a doormat or following at heel?

It's not their balls we're after, it's a fair square deal.

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): So don't be too polite, girls, don't be too polite.

Show a little fight, girl, show a little fight.

Don't be fearful of offending, in case you get the stack.

Just recognise your value and we won't look back.

John Shortis: Singer Margaret RoadKnight credits Glen Tomasetti who wrote the lyrics to that song with kick-starting her career because she said she gave her her very first gig in 1962 at the Emerald Hill Theatre in Melbourne.

Moya Simpson: And Glen Tomasetti also famously refused to pay one-sixth of her tax because she'd heard that that was the percentage of government revenue being spent on the Vietnam War.

John Shortis: Well, during the Vietnam War, the best-known demonstrations were the moratoriums, where hundreds of thousands of people marched through the streets of cities and towns all around the world and here in Australia, chanting slogans like-

Worldly Goods Choir: 1, 2, 3, 4, make love, not war.

5, 6, 7, 8, stop the war [unclear].

1, 2, 3, 4, make love, not war.

5, 6, 7, 8, stop the war [unclear].

John Shortis: Phil Lobel is another who says she became a folk singer thanks to, you guessed it, Glen Tomasetti. And I found this song written by Phil Lobel in the Sheet Music Collection here at the National Library. And this is my arrangement of one of her songs. It's in one of those song books that she wrote during the time of the Vietnam War, and it's called "Seasons of War".

Moya Simpson (singing): Spring, summer, autumn, winter, war has all the seasons.

One and two, three and four, man will give the reasons.

Soldier in the spring of war knows just what he's fighting for.

Told so many times before, fighting for his freedom.

Come the summer, oh, he's growing and the fruit of war is showing.

Pain and hate he will be knowing, fighting for his freedom.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter, war has all the seasons.

One and two, three and four, man will give the reasons.

When his friends begin to fall and the bombs rain down on all.

Then he hears the autumn call fighting for his freedom.

Winter finds the glory gone, war is great to look upon.

Soldier wonders what he's won, fighting for his freedom.

Spring, summer, autumn, winter, war has all the seasons.

One and two, three and four, man will give the reason.

John Shortis: We heard him in the first half, we can't leave him out of the second half. Here is Joh Bjelke-Petersen with his thoughts on homosexuality.

Moya Simpson: "You don't put petrol in where the oil is supposed to go."

John Shortis: Please turn to hymn number 23 in your hymn books, Fred Nile's "My Shepherd".

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Fred Nile's my shepherd, I'll not want.

He makes me down to lie.

In chastity he leadeth me the holy waters by.

Moya Simpson: Fred Nile, ultra conservative New South Wales politician, often a subject of ridicule, especially in the gay community.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): I heard say Peter is a man of wisdom, truth and grace.

I give into him [unclear]

John Shortis: One landmark event in the story of gay rights in Australia began as a joyful celebratory parade through the streets of Sydney down Oxford Street to Hyde Park. It happened in 1978 and the people involved in it have become known as the 78ers.

Moya Simpson: On the back of the truck that accompanied the campaigners was an amplified record player that played the same two songs over and over again. One was for the gay girls about a crush on a gym teacher.

Moya Simpson (singing): I wrote her name on my notepad.

And I inked it on my dress.

And I etched in on my locker.

And I carved in on my desk.

And I painted big red hearts with her initials on my books.

And I never knew till later why I got those funny looks.

Moya Simpson: The other one is for the gay boys.

John Shortis (singing): Sing if you are glad to be gay.

Sing if you're happy that way.

Sing if you're glad to be gay.

Sing if you're happy that way.

John Shortis: As the parade made its way down Oxford Street, it gathered people and the crowd got so big that by the time they got to Hyde Park, it was much bigger than police had anticipated for. And so they wouldn't let them use the truck as a stage when they talked to the crowd. Things escalated, the demonstrators moved down to King's Cross and there were violent clashes between police and demonstrators. There were many arrests, many were brutally beaten.

Moya Simpson: Undeterred, the marchers regrouped, and that was the very beginning of the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras. 46 years old, thank you Fred Nile for your contribution.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Fred Nile's my shepherd, I'll not want.

He makes me down to lie.

In chastity he leadeth me the holy waters by.

Our Fred.

John Shortis: And to prove that protests work and parades work, there was now a gay rights museum in Sydney, and it's located in what was once the Darlinghurst Police Station where the beatings and the arrests happened 76 years ago. So keep protesting.

Now, when I did my research, there was construction work going on at the Library. There still is in fact. So everywhere I looked there was a worker in a hi-vis jacket. Most of my research was done in the Special Collections Reading Room upstairs. It's closed down at the moment because of construction, but moved to a different venue. But it was up there and I love being in that room. It's so exciting. You're surrounded by researchers with boxes and boxes of manuscripts and tables laid out with maps and posters and everywhere around there's an author writing a different book. And there's a great view. You look down the side and you can see over the whole Main Reading Room, which is a very dramatic, enormous room with a high ceiling. On the outer wall, there were all these thin long windows. One day I looked out and there was a workman in a hi-vis jacket standing on a scaffolding in each of those windows. It was like an art installation.

Moya Simpson: Well, we assumed that they were members of the controversial CMFEU, but they once would've been members of the equally controversial Builders Labourers Federation, the BLF.

John Shortis: Which brings us to the Green Bans. I listened with interest to the oral history of Jack Mundey, the Secretary of the BLF back in the day. Yes.

Moya Simpson: He's obviously known and loved.

John Shortis: I was interested to find out that in 1956 when a lot of people left to the Communist Party of Australia, because of the Soviet invasion of Hungary and because of Khrushchev's secret speech in which he talked about the horrors of Stalin. Well, that's when Jack joined.

Moya Simpson: Well, he wanted the unions to protest not just wages and conditions, but to support the cause of the environment. So when a group of Hunters Hill women, many of whom would never have dreamed of protesting, were fighting to stop development in local bushland, they called upon the BLF for support. This was the first time the union used its power in this way, and the term Green Bans came into our lexicon. Well, it worked. That bushland is still protected to this very day.

John Shortis: And the way the Green Bans worked was it would begin with a request from the community, then there'd be union bans and then negotiations. One of the issues that came up in those days, in the seventies, was the planned building of a, what was the name of it? North Western freeway, was it? North Western Freeway, that's right. Which was proposed to go through what were then working class suburbs in the inner west of Sydney. Suburbs like Rozelle.

Moya Simpson: In came the Green Bans and the project eventually stopped. Thanks in part to this song written by John Dengate, arranged for choir by a former Folk Fellow as part of her fellowship, Christina Mimmocchi.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Nose up, nose up.

Noses up, nose up.

John Shortis (singing): You can take your bulldozers from under our noses.

We are not near as gutless as Cutler supposes.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): No, no.

John Shortis (singing): Build your expressway, a bloody sight-less way.

 And take your bulldozers away.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): D.M.R to the devil.

Swallow your drivel and shovel your gravel.

Green Bans now and forever, will clean your bulldozers away.

John Shortis (singing): You can take your bulldozers to Pharaoh and Moses.

You'll find demolition is no bed of roses.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): No, no.

John Shortis (singing): We are not going to live with your North-West Distributor.

Take your bulldozers away.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): D.M.R to the devil.

Swallow your drivel and shovel your gravel.

Green Bans now and forever, will keep your bulldozers away.

Moya Simpson: There were recent protests in Sydney at the Rozelle interchange about the extraordinary traffic snarls caused by WestConnex. So this updated chorus was written after John's death by his wife, Dale Dengate.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): WestConnex to the devil.

Swallow your drivel and shovel your gravel.

Green Bans, Green Bans forever, will keep your bulldozers away.

Will keep your bulldozers away.

John Shortis: Speaking of John Dengate, this is a parody he wrote of a well-known song about Pine Gap. Pine Gap, the US Defence facility situated near Alice Springs, very controversial, very secretive. And in 1983, the scene of many a protest.

Moya Simpson (singing): North of Oodnadatta, round by Alice Springs.

I'd say in the centre, there are lots of lovely things.

And if you should wander for Mayhap.

You'll see is a place they call Pine Gap.

It's a little Uncle Sam site.

His own little domain.

John Shortis: In 1983, 700 women converged for a women's peace camp at Pine Gap. There were of course trespassing and arrests. But on one particular day there were 111 women arrested. That's when this happened.

Moya Simpson: "Now, as a policeman, I'm arresting you for unlawful trespassing on government property. Your name Madam?"

Member of the Worldly Goods Choir: "Karen Silkwood."

Moya Simpson: "Karen Silkwood. That's S-I-L-K-W-O-O-D. Thank you. And your name Madam?"

Member of the Worldly Goods Choir: "Karen Silkwood."

Moya Simpson: "Karen Silkwood. S-I-L-K-W-O-O-D. What's your name?"

Member of the Worldly Goods Choir: "Karen Silkwood".

Moya Simpson: "What's your name?"

Member of the Worldly Goods Choir: "Karen Silkwood."

Moya Simpson: "What's your name?"

Member of the Worldly Goods Choir: "Karen Silkwood."

Moya Simpson: "What are you all called?"

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir: "Karen Silkwood."

John Shortis: Yes. All 111 women gave their name as Karen Silkwood, the American chemical technician who famously campaigned for nuclear safety.

Moya Simpson: Well, the women's protest was very much inspired by the Greenham Common protest in England in which women took disruptive action against the US base.

John Shortis: But what about Joh Bjelke-Petersen? What did he have to say about uranium?

Moya Simpson: "We won't be able to sit on uranium, firstly, because it would not be right and secondly, because it would be wrong."

John Shortis: You can't write this stuff, can you? Well, back in the mid-sixties, singers Jeannie Lewis, Mark Gregory and Mike Leyden, the one who wrote the music for "Weevils in the Flour", joined up with a moving feast of fourth members. Well, first they met. They met at Sydney Uni through the campaign for nuclear disarmament, and with a moveable feast of fourth members, people like Chris Kimster and others, they formed a group called the Radiation Quartet. And they were very big on the folk scene back then. Now Jeannie is a good friend of ours and she's shown us the songbook that they sang from. Should here in the Library, actually. And it's once again, the notes are handwritten and the lyrics are typed at home. And it's just fantastic just to see the material that they sing, and included this song. A song that is written by the same team that gave us "Weevils in the Flour", Dorothy Hewett and Mike Leyden, who was in the quartet. They recorded it, as did Gary Shearston. I actually found it as well, here in the Library in the pocket, "Anti-Uranium Songbook", and it's called "Atomic Lullaby".

Moya Simpson (singing): Hush my baby, do not cry, a mushroom cloud is in the sky.

Now I lay you down to die.

Lulla, lulla, lullaby.

If you should die before I wake, I pray the Lord your soul to take.

But who will heal your bitter ache?

Lulla, lulla, lullaby.

Hush my baby, do not cry, a mother's tears are never dry.

Who will teach your feet to run?

And who will guide your lisping tongue?

And who will warm you in the sun?

Now that my body's work is done.

I did not ache that you might die.

The world should hear my bloody cry.

So sleep in peace and lullaby.

Lulla, lulla, lullaby.

Hush my baby, do not cry, mother's tears are never dry.

John Shortis: Joh Bjelke-Petersen on Aboriginal land rights.

Moya Simpson: "Land rights is a communist plot to set up land bases that'll be used for gorilla training centres by other countries."

John Shortis: Say that again.

Moya Simpson: It's what he said.

John Shortis: Yes. Well, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have been fighting for their rights since the early days of colonisation. But with the advent of things like the civil rights movement in America, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, then Aboriginal rights were raised in profile and became part of Australian protest movements.

Moya Simpson: And based on a similar protest from the civil rights struggle in America, the idea for a freedom ride grew to travel around New South Wales towns to highlight the conditions endured by Aboriginal communities.

John Shortis: In February 1965, the bus they travelled in left Sydney Uni and a visiting group of Black American singers and actors who were performing at a theatre in Sydney came to wish them well, and farewell them with a rousing rendition of "We Shall Overcome", a song with which in its very title says a lot. We-

Moya Simpson: The power of community

John Shortis: Shall-

Moya Simpson: Hope for the future.

John Shortis: Overcome-

Moya Simpson: Defiance and endurance. And we were thrilled to find out that one of our choir members Lynne in the sopranos, she was there on the day. And she fare-welled the bus. And as she fare-welled the bus, she heard their rendition of We Shall Overcome.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): We shall overcome.

We shall overcome.

We shall overcome someday.

Deep in my heart I do believe that we shall overcome someday.

We'll walk hand in hand.

We'll walk hand in hand.

We'll walk hand in hand someday.

Deep in my heart I do believe that we shall overcome someday.

John Shortis: I mentioned Phil Lobel earlier and in one of her songbooks that's here in the Library, in the Sheet Music Collection, I found one of her earliest ever songs written in response to the Freedom Rides, and upon hearing that Aboriginal children weren't allowed to swim at the pool in towns like Moree.

Moya Simpson (singing): Mother may I go out to swim?

Yes, my darling daughter.

Mother, I would go out to swim, but at the pool I can't get in.

Because of the colour of my skin.

Because I'm your darling daughter.

Mother, will I go to school?

Yes, my darling daughter.

Mother, when I go to school, will the children treat me cruel?

Children follow their parents rule, my darling dark eyed daughter.

Mother, when will this all end?

I don't know, my daughter.

Maybe it will end the day when heaven and earth will pass away.

And we will hear a great voice say, 'You're welcome here, my daughter.'"

John Shortis: And so to Animal Rights, being in the news a bit recently with live animal export. Then there was some problems with greyhound racing, horse racing. It seems, in fact, that interest in the good old Melbourne Cup is actually dwaning. Dwaning? Waning a little. It's supposed to be dwindling. Dwindling, waning, you know what I mean, yeah.

Worldly Goods Choir: Nup to the cup. Nup to the cup. Nup to the cup. Nup to the cup.

John Shortis: Here in the Library, I found a cassette. Remember them? And on that cassette were a whole lot of entries in a parody songwriting competition organised by Animal Rights. I found it because it was in the papers of Anne Edgeworth, a Canberra poet and activist, and it was in her papers because she was one of the judges in the competition. Here are some of the entries.

Moya Simpson: First, a bit of Gilbert Sullivan.

Moya Simpson (singing): As someday it may happen that a victim must be found.

John Shortis and Moya Simpson (singing): We've got a little list. We've got a little list.

Moya Simpson (singing): Of animal offenders who might well be underground.

Who never would be missed, they never would be missed.

John Shortis (singing): There's the company that tests on rabbits, dogs and chimpanzees. They dab them, jab them, make them feel so very ill at ease.

Moya Simpson (singing): The man who owns the chicken farm, where chickens are de-beaked.

John Shortis (singing): He crams them in so close together that he's got them freaked.

Moya Simpson (singing): And those who do live exports, well, I really do insist that none of them be missed, that none of them missed.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): We've got them on the list. We've got them on the list.

Let none of them missed, let none of them be missed.

Moya Simpson (singing): Cooped up, helpless little hen in your tiny battery pen.

Cannot scratch and cannot fly, cannot move to see the sky.

Please release this captive hen. You will do it, tell me when?

Moya Simpson: And even a Dylan song was parodied.

Moya Simpson (singing):

So I'll tear down their cages and open the skies.

Let them smell the sweet earth, see the sun through their eyes.

Let them roam on green pastures, but not pasteurised.

Some attitudes need rearranging.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Look out your window, you'll soon realise that the times that they need are changing.

Moya Simpson: Now there's a name that comes up in the National Library Sheet Music Collection as the editor of "Voices for the Animals", and it's Frankie Seymour, who I believe is here somewhere. Yes, she is. Yes. So "Voices for the Animals" was the Animal Rights songbook. This song is called "The Lament of the Last Kangaroo", and it was written and sung by Frankie herself at a candlelight vigil at the top of Red Hill in Canberra, as a response to the culling of kangaroos by the ACT government.

Moya Simpson (singing): Lonely, lonely, up the bank, lonely down the bray.

Lonely by the waterside, taken all the way.

Over, over, all is weary. Over, over, oh.

Over, over, all is weary. Over, over, oh.

Gone all our gentle sisters, gone our handsome brothers.

Gone our fathers and our children, gone our dear wise mothers.

Over, over, all is weary. Over, over, oh.

Over, over, all is weary. Over, over, oh.

Moya Simpson: Frankie says that the vigils are a chance for all the people who've grieved and wept and worked together to stop the killing, to mourn and to take comfort in each other. Last year, 40 or 50 people came and there were about 100 candles.

Moya Simpson (singing): Gone the winter wind, gone the summer dry.

I will sleep where sleep my kin, last of all to die.

John Shortis: And so to 1995, nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean by the French government, led by President Jacques Chirac, and just weeks after the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and against an international chorus of disapproval.

Moya Simpson: And one of our choir members, Mary, over there, she was in France at the time, and she told us that the tests were not very popular within France. And that there was actually a campaign to stick little yellow stickers on coins bearing the message, "No nuclear tests."

John Shortis: Greenpeace had five boats in the exclusion zone, including the Rainbow Warrior. There were protests in many of the Pacific nations around the place, also outside French embassies across the world. Air France was grounded, stranding many tourists, and companies like Body Shop actually joined an international boycott against French products, hoping to hurt the French economy.

Moya Simpson: In our parliament, there was bipartisan opposition to the test, but there was apparently a little confusion because it became apparent that some Australians had rather missed the point and were boycotting things like Australian croissants baked in Australian bakeries.

John Shortis: That will hurt the French government. So in 1995, I wrote a song about this situation, and knowing that Moya is a fluent French speaker.

Moya Simpson: (speaking French)

John Shortis: I knew that if I put some French words in the song, she'd be able to cut it, so I thought, "Well, let's get rid of all things French, regardless of where they come from and all will be solved."

Moya Simpson: So this song is in a form of a letter to the French government. But as many of you may well be aware, French letters have been known to fail.

Moya Simpson (singing): (singing in French)

So to all things French, like pastilles, daisies, it's goodbye, not hello.

A big bon voyage to French fromage and escargot.

(singing in French)

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): (singing in French)

Moya Simpson (singing): I'm sounding the nail on Sacha Distel and Marcel Marceau.

I'm closing the door on Charles Aznavour and Brigitte Bardot.

No more sweet Chanteurs, I'm serious. No singing. None.

(singing in French)

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): (singing in French)

Moya Simpson (singing): [unclear] and Camembert, I will resist.

There'll be no more can-can, no Coq au Vin, the whole of the list.

No Veuve Clicquot, cognac, Cointreau, Grand Marnier.

(singing in French)

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): (singing in French)

Moya Simpson (singing): Monsuir Jacques Chirac, you deserve le sack.

Till you change what you talk Jacques Chirac.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): (singing in French)

Moya Simpson: Yeah.

John Shortis: Well, since I'm a Folk Fellow, it's not surprising that a lot of the material you've heard tonight comes from the genre of folk music or thereabouts. But it's interesting that in the Library I found quite a few contemporary classical pieces, Australian pieces, written as well about protest topics, like the Rainbow Warrior. There's a whole opera about the Rainbow Warrior. Asylum seekers, Aboriginal deaths in custody, the Stolen Generation. There's even a classical piece written in praise of Bob Brown, and a piece written by Bob Brown, "Anthem for the Earth", words and music.

Moya Simpson: Well, Bob Brown was of course the face of the Franklin blockade in the early 80s, where it was proposed that the Hydroelectric Commission, the HEC, dam the Gordon River below Franklin in southwest Tasmania. Bob got right up the noses of the supporters of the dam who were heard to say, "If it's brown, flush it."

John Shortis: But the blockade can be seen as the beginning of the political career of Bob Brown, and certainly what's kicked off the Greens party. And I reckon it was the protest movement with the most songs. Now, there was a group of protestors brought down from the Nimbin area who were fresh from successful and very musical protests at Terania Creek. They joined forces with the wilderness people in Tasmania and all the followers that came from everywhere, and the number of songs was enormous. There's song books here full of them, millions of them sung in oral histories. There's a keyboard up in the room up there, and so I sat there with a little tiny manuscript paper at the keyboard, working out these tunes from people singing them while they're having a cup of tea in their lounge room. But there are so many of them. Here are a couple of them.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): No dams, no dams, no dams, we say.

No dams, no danms for Tasmania.

Don't touch the Southwest, just let it be.

Let the Gordon and Franklin wild rivers run free.

Moya Simpson: The protestors made sure that they trespassed on HEC property, which of course led to arrests, including the arrest of Bob Brown himself. Dressed in a cream cable knit jumper and a tie, he looked far too respectable to be hauled off to Hobart's Risdon Jail. But those arrested were only offered bail if they signed agreements saying that they wouldn't lurk, loiter, hide and secrete. Instead of signing, they set the order to music.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): We're going to lurk, loiter, hide and secrete.

We're going to lurk, loiter, hide and secrete.

We're going to lurk, loiter, hide and secrete on HEC property.

We're going to lurk, loiter, hide and secrete.

We're going to lurk, loiter, hide and secrete.

We're going to lurk, loiter, hide and secrete on HEC property.

Moya Simpson: Into prison they went, boys at one end, girls at the other. Apparently the women kept taking their clothes off, and when a lawyer came to see them, one of the wardens said to him, "Would you please tell your women to stop taking their off," to which the lawyer replied, "They're not my women."

John Shortis: Well, in the men's prison, some of the inmates would call out, "Give us another song, Greenies," and the men would oblige, sometimes by singing to the women in this song of Salad Solidarity.

John Shortis and men of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Men to women, can you hear us?

Walls can never separate us.

Love and peaceful songs unite us.

HEC will never smite us.

Moya Simpson: And the women's reply.

Moya Simpson and women of the Worldly Goods Choir (singing): We can hear the song that's for us, and we'll join in with our chorus.

Till we're free just like the rivers, Christmas Eve you'll all be with us.

Men to women, women to men.

Moya Simpson: Well, they got out of prison and they went straight back to business.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): I love to go a trespassing and lurk among the trees.

Secrete myself in wilderness and loiter as I please.

HEC, HEC, HEC, H-E-C-C-C-C-C-C.

HEC, HEC, I'm Greenie and I'm free.

Moya Simpson: And this song was dedicated to the humble HEC bulldozer driver.

Moya Simpson (singing): The minute you walked in the joint.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Bulldoze.

Moya Simpson (singing): I could see you were a man of extinction, a real tree-bender.

Good wood chip, so refined.

The thought of all that sawdust really blows your mind.

So let me get right to the point.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Destroy.

Moya Simpson (singing): I've got to chain myself to your machinery.

Hey, tree-bender.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Hey, tree-bender.

Let the wild rivers fun free.

Moya Simpson (singing): Wouldn't you like to see ferns, ferns, ferns?

How about a few plants, plants, plants?

I could show you some Huon Pine.

Let me show you some Huon Pine.

So let me get right to the point.

I'm going to chain myself to your machinery.

Hey, tree-bender.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Hey, tree-bender.

Moya Simpson (singing): Hey, tree-bender.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Hey, tree-bender.

Moya Simpson (singing): Hey, tree-bender.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): Let the wild rivers run free. Bang.

John Shortis: We have come to the end of Something Worth Fighting For. So a few things, I'd like to thank Adam, who did the live sound here for us tonight. And thank you very much to Brian, actually. Oh yeah, for Adam, yes. So he's up there in a little booth, and also is Brian, who's been filming tonight. So tonight will be online, there'll be a link. We'll give it to as many of you as we possibly can, but look out for it through the Library in the weeks to come. So thank you to Brian. And thank you to the Worldly Goods Choir for being our rabble.

Thank you to the National Library and the National Folk Festival for giving me this fellowship in the first place, and thank you very much to the staff here at the Library, they've been fantastic. The Fellowship people led by Sharyn O'Brien, and also the librarians. They helped me so much to find all the things that I was trying to find. I'd just have a beginning of an idea, they would find it. I'd want permission to listen to an oral history, they'd get the permission. So thank you to all of them. Thank you to all of you, of course, for coming here tonight.

Moya Simpson: And if you want to be on our mailing list, come and talk to us. If you want to join this fabulous choir, come and talk to us.

John Shortis: And I think we should have Joh giving us the final word.

Moya Simpson: "You know, I really worry about Queensland. I lose a lot of sleep because I don't know what will happen when I go."

John Shortis: They seem to have gotten on without you, Joh. Well, we would like to finish as we started with Let the Franklin Flow, written by Shane Howard of Goanna. And Shane knows a thing or two about protesting. For example, last year, he handed back his OAM, citing deep sadness at the result of the Voice to Parliament referendum.

Moya Simpson: Yes. So, may protests, rebellion and defiance remain as a vital part of our democracy, because there will always be something worth fighting for.

Worldly Goods Choir (singing): So let the Franklin flow, let the wild lands be, the wilderness should be strong and free.

From Kutikina to the Southwest shore, has to be something worth fighting for.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

Has to be something worth fighting for.

John Shortis: Oh, thank you.

Luke Hickey: If there's one thing that I've learned since I've been working here at the Library is that you get a surprise pretty much every day. And I think, talking to Moya in the break, hearing about the Prime Minister's nether regions, was certainly ticking that off for me today. We really love seeing our collections come to life. We have an important role in collecting and caring for them, but it's truly what people like yourself, John, do with them, researching them, bringing them back to life. And I think it's fair to say things don't get much livelier than tonight. Thank you, John, Moya, and the Worldly Goods Choir. Tonight was brilliantly researched, arranged, and performed. I think you'll all agree that deserves another massive round of applause.

Before we close, you can't get out of here without a couple of other plugs. As John said, I would like to thank the National Folk Festival for their support and partnering with the National Library over the last 20 years. Our Fellows and Scholars Programme wouldn't exist without the support of donors and partners such as those, and we look forward to continuing to provide researchers like John and all the Folk Fellows before him with the time and space to engage deeply with the Library's collections. I hope you can join us for our next fellowship presentation. Perhaps it'll be a little bit smaller on the stage than tonight, but on Thursday the 24th of October, Dr Caren Florence will reveal how the National Library's broad and vibrant collection of artists books came to be.

There's also plenty happening here at the Library over the next month. You might be interested in coming back during the day to see our current exhibition that we've got on, which is Australia's Migration Stories: Hopes and Fears. We've got a panel discussion, which is on the 1st of October, which includes Mariam Veiszadeh, Om Dhungel, Nyadol Nyuon, and Professor Brian Schmidt, and will be facilitated by Claudia Chan Shaw. We've got our First Nations events, our Deadly Dialogue series. The next one of those is on the 2nd of October with Karlie Noon and Celeste Carnegie.

You might be interested in book launches that we've got with Peter Crowley and Kasey Chambers, or coming to the Canberra Writers Festival events that we're hosting here on the 26th and 27th of October. So check out our website or our social media pages for more. As John said, the recording of tonight's event will be online in the next week or so, so keep an eye out for that.

Thank you all for attending tonight, it truly has been a wonderful crowd, and please join me with me again in congratulating John, Moya, and our wonderful choir. Thank you.