From our latest self titled album: Room For Us All Willing Salt Accolades From our previous album 'Belle Curve':  Coming Out Blues Triage

Accolades was written for Rob Riley, a Western Australian Aboriginal activist who was one of the commissioners into the Royal Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. His passion for justice and reconciliation were an inspiration to vast numbers of Australians, and to me personally.

I was alone in a hotel room in Darwin in 1996 when I saw news of his tragic death reported on the television. Our country had lost a voice it could ill afford to lose: a compassionate and insistent voice which urged us all to redress the inequities experienced by Indigenous Australians.

This song was born in a haze of grief and tears and I wasn't at all sure that I would ever sing it for anyone else, but it wouldn't go out of my head.It has since become one of our most requested songs at gigs.

In 2006 the book “Rob Riley: An Aboriginal Leader’s Quest For Justice”, written by Quentin Beresford was published by Australian Aboriginal Studies Press. Available through all major book retailers, this is an inspiring, absorbing and through account of an extraordinary life and the political struggles which continue to this day. I think it should be essential reading for every Australian.

hey man of wisdom do you know
how many of us feel the blow
strong in presiding,
your gentle confiding
taught me the very thing I needed to know
and now these thoughts are
going round inside my head
why do we leave praising 'til somebody's dead

'cause if we've got something to say
why dont we say it while they're living
there are accolades to give
for god's sake, let's do the giving
while it's possible
'cause it's impossible now

hey man of wisdom do you know
how many of us saw you as a hero
and hey man of wisdom do you know
how many of us are feeling the blow
and now the grief is near exploding in our heads
how can we leave praising 'til somebody's dead

'cause if we've got something to say
why dont we say it while they're living
there are accolades to give
for god's sake, let's do the giving
while it's possible
'cause it's impossible now
it's impossible now

wisdom with it's sweet surprises
wisdom in it's different guises
wisdom in a voice that lingers still
recognise the past you said
until we do we can't move ahead
and guilt won't heal, but justice surely will
hey man of wisdom do you know
hey man of wisdom do you know

that if we've got something to say
we're gonna say it while we're living
there are accolades to give for god's sake,
let's do the giving while it's possible
it is possible now

© v. bennett