CANBERRA—From little things big things grow - is the message a new song about the apology to the stolen generations is hoping to spread.
The song is a re-make of the 1990s classic by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody that told the story of the 1966 Gurindji Strike led by Vincent Lingiari.
To the same tune, the hip-hop version uses lines from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the stolen generations and features parts of former Prime Minister Paul Keating's Redfern speech on reconciliation.
Kev Carmody said the song is about the steps towards reconciliation sparked by the apology.
"The process has begun, it's a step, one step at a time, as a couple of musos said a few years ago now `from little things big things grow'," he told reporters.
The musician said the song sounded "fantastic" and he paid tribute to the indigenous oral traditions.
"What (hip-hop group) The Herd have done is updated it into a format that the demographic...can now relate to," he said.
Producer of the song, Tim `Urthboy' Levison from The Herd, said the Prime Minister was good talent to work with.
"The (national apology) day had such an emotional effect on the community that they (the words) kind of lent themselves to the song and it kind of became poetry.
"Once we used a singer to sing those words it sort of jumped right out of the tape player."
He said he would have sampled the federal opposition if they had said something worthwhile.
"Perhaps if there were more inspiring quotes from the other sides then they would have been included."
Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett said the song was a soundtrack for all Australians.
Mr Garrett, as frontman of Midnight Oil, performed the original version of the song with Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody more than a decade ago.
"What I have seen and heard today really makes me proud as a politician who used to make music and who cares a lot about the country, and who has been involved in this issue for many, many years," Mr Garrett said.
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