A smash hit from legendary Australian rockers Midnight Oil has been re-recorded in Aboriginal language by four women in an outback WA prison.
Midnight Oil's 1986 ode to the mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians, The Dead Heart, was remixed by the band's guitarist Jim Moginie with the help of prisoners from Kalgoorlie-Boulder's Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison.
There, it was translated into Ngaanyatjarra language by a group of prisoners from the Western Desert communities and recorded alongside five original songs about children, family and yearning for home.
Mr Moginie said the songs reflected a sense of longing and pain.
"I couldn't believe how beautiful it was and how stripped back it was and so rhythmically great," he said.
"This stuff's just so raw at times, It's quite confronting, actually.
"It is just so beautifully expressed and whatever they did there in the prison was extraordinary."
The songs will appear on an album called Minymaku Kurturtukatja - Heart of a Woman in which the women tell stories of homeland, family, forgiveness and love, part of an EGRP program to help Ngaanyatjarra speakers gain literacy skills.
"It is just so beautifully expressed and whatever they did there in the prison was extraordinary" - Jim Moginie
Corrective Services commissioner Mike Reynolds said music and education programs contributed significantly to rehabilitation.
"In addition to personal development, this innovative program gives participants valuable
language and translating skills which they could put to use in the community," he said.
Project facilitator Ange Leech said the program was designed to give prisoners the best chance of success when they leave.
The Dead Heart was originally recorded to mark the handing back of Uluru to Traditional Owners.
