Peter Garrett - Music and Activism

Music and Activism

Born in Wahroonga, Sydney, Garrett attended Gordon West Public School and then Barker College in Hornsby before studying arts at the Australian National University (ANU), where he was a resident at Burgmann College, and later law at the University of New South Wales. About the same time he became a singer with the Australian rock band Midnight Oil in 1973, after responding to an advertisement placed by one of the band's founding members, Rob Hirst. In tandem with their musical and commercial success, the band were long identified with environmental causes. They were particularly critical of United States' military and foreign policies during the 1980s.

Garrett was president of the Australian Conservation Foundation (1989–93, 1998–2004). He joined the international board of Greenpeace in 1993 for a two-year term. He served as adviser and patron to various cultural and community organisations, including Jubilee Debt Relief, and was a founding member of the Surfrider Foundation.

On and off stage, Midnight Oil often made political statements. At the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the group performed before the Prime Minister, John Howard, and a television audience of hundreds of millions, wearing black overalls bearing the word "sorry". This referred to the Howard Government's refusal to apologise to Aboriginal Australians for the former policy of removing of Aboriginal children from their families.

In 2000, Garrett was awarded the Australian Humanitarian Foundation Award in the environment category and in 2001 he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New South Wales. He left Midnight Oil in 2002 to concentrate on his environmental and social activism, effectively spelling the end for the group. He has since ruled out any future musical projects, stating that his musical career was always exclusively bound to Midnight Oil.

Following the Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, Garrett and the other members of Midnight Oil reformed for two gigs as part of the fund-raising event WaveAid.

On 7 July 2007, Garrett presented Crowded House at the Australian leg of Live Earth.

On 14 March 2009, Garrett (with Midnight Oil) performed live at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Sound Relief to raise money for the Victorian bushfire appeal.