Treaty (song)

"Treaty"
Single by Yothu Yindi
from the album Tribal Voice
Language	Gumatj English
B-side	"Yolngu Boy"
Released	June 1991
Recorded	1991
Genre	Pop, new wave, Indigenous Australian
Length	3:35
Label	Mushroom Razor
Songwriter(s)	Paul Kelly, Mandawuy Yunupingu, Stuart Kellaway, Cal Williams, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Milkayngu Mununggurr, Banula Marika, Peter Garrett
Producer(s)	Mark Moffatt
Yothu Yindi singles chronology
"Djäpana" (1989) "Treaty" (1991) "Djäpana" (1992)

"Treaty" is a protest song by Australian musical group Yothu Yindi, which is made up of Aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) members.^[1] Released in June 1991, "Treaty" was the first song by a predominantly Aboriginal band to chart in Australia^[2] and was the first song partly in any Aboriginal Australian language to gain extensive international recognition, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play singles charts.^[2][3] The song contains lyrics in Gumatj, one of the Yolngu Matha dialects and a language of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia.

The song was released three years after the presentation of the Barunga Statement to then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Brothers Mandawauy and Galarrwuy Yunupingu wanted to highlight the lack of progress on the treaty between Indigenous Australians and the Australian government.

"Treaty" peaked at No. 11 on the ARIA Singles Chart in September 1991. In May 2001 "Treaty" was selected by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. In 2009 "Treaty" was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the "most Australian songs of all time", the Filthy Lucre version of "Treaty" was ranked number 10.