Aboriginal rock is the body of post-1980 Australian music in which Indigenous musicians fuse traditional elements — the didgeridoo, Yolŋu Matha and other Indigenous-language vocals, manikay-style chant — with rock, folk, and hip-hop. The central bands are Yothu Yindi (formed 1986, Arnhem Land NT), Warumpi Band (1980, Papunya NT), and No Fixed Address (1979, Adelaide), all of them mixed Indigenous / non-Indigenous line-ups combining traditional instruments with electric guitar. Typical line-ups run five to eight players — one or two didgeridoo players, a clapsticks player, an electric rhythm section, multiple lead vocalists.

The Warumpi Band, formed at Papunya in the Northern Territory in 1980 with Neil Murray (from Lake Bolac, Vic.), toured remote Aboriginal communities across the outback in a 4WD truck — a legendary chapter in Australian music history. Their 1985 single 'Blackfella / Whitefella' called for reconciliation and was widely sung nationally. No Fixed Address, formed in Adelaide in 1979, were the first band to make Indigenous rights an explicit political subject; the 1981 film Wrong Side of the Road documented their activity. Yothu Yindi, formed in 1986, achieved decisive international recognition with 'Treaty' in 1991.

On Yothu Yindi's 'Treaty' Mandawuy Yunupingu's Yolŋu Matha vocals and the English rap trade off over a 4/4 rock beat; the lyric 'You promised us treaty / And now the world is watching' is a direct address to Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Warumpi Band's 'Blackfella / Whitefella' is a straightforward pub-rock 4/4 with a plain-English lyric about coexistence — a singable political anthem. Archie Roach's 'Took the Children Away' (1990) uses acoustic guitar and spoken-song delivery to record the collective trauma of the Stolen Generations.

Yothu Yindi 'Treaty' (1991) for the decisive anthem. Warumpi Band 'Blackfella / Whitefella' (1985) for the reconciliation song. Archie Roach 'Took the Children Away' (1990) for the Stolen Generations record. Geoffrey Gurrumul 'Wiyathul' (2008) and Baker Boy 'Marryuna' (2017) for the ballad and hip-hop generations that followed. Night or early morning, focused listening.

Mandawuy Yunupingu (1956–2013), central figure of Yothu Yindi, was Yolŋu of the Gumatj clan, a former principal of Batchelor College (a Northern Territory TAFE) — an educator and politician as well as a musician. He died in a remote Yolŋu-language community, Djarrakpi, in 2013 aged 56, among the last generation of full-repertoire holders. Warumpi Band's 'My Island Home' (1987), later a solo Neil Murray song, ranked 20th in a 2001 national poll of unofficial anthems — sung across the non-Indigenous Australian public as well.