Bear Witness is the first and only studio album by Australian pop rock band I'm Talking. The line-up was Zan Abeyratne and Kate Ceberano on co-lead vocals, Stephen Charlesworth on keyboards, Ian Cox on saxophone, Robert Goodge on lead guitar, Barbara Hogarth on bass guitar and Cameron Newman on drums. It was released in August 1986 on Regular Records and reached No. 14 on the Kent Music Report albums chart. All eight tracks were co-written by Cox (lyrics) and Goodge (music). The album yielded three singles, "Do You Wanna Be?" (May), "Holy Word" (July) and "How Can It Be?" (October).

At the 1986 Countdown Australian Music Awards Bear Witness was nominated for Best Debut Album. Richard Alan, responsible for its cover, was nominated for Best Cover Artist at the 1987 ARIA Music Awards. I'm Talking received international interest; as a result they undertook a 36-date tour of the United Kingdom supporting Five Star in late 1986. In October 2010, Bear Witness was listed in the book 100 Best Australian Albums. In December 2021 Rolling Stone Australia ranked it No. 162 on their list of 200 Greatest Australian Albums of All Time. An expanded re-mastered version of the album was issued in March 2018 by Bloodlines, a subsidiary of the Mushroom Group. It included three non-album singles—"Trust Me" (November 1984), "Lead the Way" (June 1985) and "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" (August)—as well as B-sides and mix tracks. This release peaked at No. 41 on the ARIA Top 100 Physical Albums chart and No. 2 on the ARIA Hitseeker Albums chart.

Bear Witness was the debut studio album issued by Australian pop rock band I'm Talking on 4 August 1986. The line-up was Zan Abeyratne and Kate Ceberano on co-lead vocals, Stephen Charlesworth on keyboards, Ian Cox on saxophone, Robert Goodge on lead guitar, Barbara Hogarth on bass guitar and Cameron Newman on drums. Whilst most contemporary Australian musicians were playing pub rock in the 1980s, I'm Talking provided London-influenced soul combined with American R&B and electro-funk.

Ceberano stated that the album's name has "no specific meaning". According to The Canberra Times' Pollyanna Sutton their earlier song writing process consisted of "a member presenting a melody to the other members, who in turn make up something to suit the riff on their own instruments, with [Cox] adding lyrics". Goodge later described it as being "a collaborative process not just with each other but with the producer and engineer".

I'm Talking's first release was a six-track extended play, Someday (May 1984), on independent label Randelli. The title track was aired on SBS-TV's Rock Around the World with a music video created after "we did some music for this video art thing and they did a rock clip for us in return". Robert Randall and Frank Bendinelli of Randelli Music had created an art installation, More Love Stories (1984), at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, South Yarra, for which I'm Talking provided the music. The EP was recorded before Abeyratne joined, according to Newman: "[Abeyratne] was a friend of [Ceberano]'s. She joined after about three gigs. [Ceberano] suggested that she come along and do some backing vocals, because none of us could sing."

The band were managed by Ken West and Vivian Lees, and following the release of Someday, they were signed to Regular Records, which had been founded by Cameron Allan and Martin Fabinyi. The group's initial work with Allan as producer were scrapped, "we just didn't see eye to eye. We didn't even reach the mix stage." Goodge expanded, "We spoke to lots of people who said, 'Yes, they knew what we wanted and they could do it', but we found that they couldn't. We threw the first tapes away, but we were learning all the time."

Eventually they found Ross Cockle (Glenn Shorrock, Real Life), "who had an empathy with the group and with disco". Their first three non-album singles—"Trust Me" (November 1984), "Lead the Way" (June 1985) and their cover version of Rose Royce's "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" (August)—were produced by Cockle for Regular Records. Writing credits for the first two singles were given as Ceberano, Charlesworth, Cox, Goodge, Hogarth and Newman. Ceberano later clarified that the other members of the group viewed the band as a collective, in which "everything was shared—the philosophy, the credits, the money"; however, in reality, she had little to do with the song writing or production. I'm Talking performed "Trust Me" on teen pop music TV programme Countdown on 9 December 1984. "Lead the Way" was broadcast on the same show in August 1985.

In preparation for Bear Witness, Goodge explained that they would not use Cockle: "[he] was an engineer more than a musician, so we did all of the arrangements ourselves. For the album we'll use someone different again – we're talking to two American guys out of Scritti Politti who are interested in doing it. They contacted us when they were out here." Goodge also decided not to include their singles, "[they] won't be on it. I always feel that's a bit of a rip-off – we will have done four singles so we're almost up to one side of an album – there's no point. It's more fun for us to do all new stuff."