Djalu Gurruwiwi, yidaki craftsman

Introduction:

Before I can begin to talk about the didgeridoo, I have to introduce some words that you may or may not already be familiar with. The first is Yolngu (pronounced Yol´nu). Yolngu is a group of languages spoken throughout Northeastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territories, Australia. The word literally means "people". It is the word which the indigenous people from that part of the land use to describe themselves collectively. These people, the Yolngu people, are the custodians of their land, art, songs and music. They are the "traditional" keepers of knowledge about these things and the traditional owners of whom I speak in reference to the didgeridoo. Their word for the didgeridoo is Yirdaki (pronounced Yi´dakee). When they speak of "Balanda", they are referring to people like myself who are not Yolngu, but rather of European heritage either culturally or genetically. That word comes from their earliest visitors, the Makassans. It is derived from the world "Hollander" - a more recent visitor to their lands, the Dutch explorers.

When I talk about the history of the didgeridoo, I'm talking about the awareness of non-Aboriginal people of an instrument. The greater history is really only known by a relatively small number of people - the traditional owners. The traditional owners history is far older and can not be told by outsiders. It perhaps can be told to outsiders, but not by them. This is because the culture the didgeridoo comes from has its own way of keeping history and of passing on information. Our way is different, and in that different way I can only speak of what has been reported about the instrument since knowledge of it spread beyond the safe keeping of the traditional owners.

I can speak of what is written in text books and taught in schools. This is the way my culture reckons history and passes on information. I don't believe for a minute that our way is better. It is, in fact , proven to be fallible and inaccurate. The Aboriginal way is proven over thousands of years, while our way has repeatedly found itself filled with contradictions, misunderstandings and political agenda.

Information about the didgeridoo came to the world in stages or "waves." These waves were: discovery, anthropological studies, appropriation by contemporary musicians, instrument sales and finally, internet discussion lists and web pages. With each wave came different aspects or "spins" on the information which has taken on a life of its own.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation, in a 1999 newsletter, eloquently expressed an Aboriginal perspective on the issue of appropriation of the instrument. "...Yet Yolngu people are concerned that the emergence of a global culture and the commercialization of the Yidaki [sic] has the potential to separate the Yidaki from its origins in the sacred stories which are at the heart of the songs. Ritual leaders of northeast Arnhem Land are calling for a new relationship with Balanda which recognizes the centrality of the Yidaki to the Aboriginal groups who by right and tradition have the Yidaki as one of the instruments of cultural expression." (Yothu Yindi Foundation Newsletter 1999)

The first wave: Discovery

Non-aboriginal people first documented encountering the didgeridoo when an explorer named T.B. Wilson described an aboriginal man playing an instrument called the eboro in Raffles Bay on the Coburg Peninsula in 1835. He described the instrument as being made of bamboo and about three feet in length. The earliest references to the instrument all occur in the later part of the last century. In the century that followed, the instrument was observed by anthropologists on mainland Arnhem Land. The hard wood instruments particular to Arnhem Land (yirdakis) were usually crafted from eucalyptus species like "stringy bark" and "woolybutt" in the North, and Red River Gum further south near Katherine. There is also documentation of didgeridoos made of palm even further south. By the time anthropologist Alice Moyle was publishing her field work in the mid 1970s, aboriginal groups where using found pipes such as land rover tailpipes and water pipes as didgeridoos.

The Second Wave: The Anthropologists

Information about the didgeridoo and the music to which it belonged began spreading to the outside world through the published accounts of anthropologists. This was the start of a separation of the use of the instrument from the cultural setting to which it owes its invention. It started in the early part of the last century and continues through present day. But the anthropologists where documenting the music through recordings, transcriptions of music and descriptive prose. In 1974 Prof. AP Elkin would write, "From 1927 on I had seen corroborees with their singing and dancing... but it was not until I made a survey in 1946, almost around Arnhem Land, that I realized the vitality and richness of the singing and dancing of that region. I therefore determined to make permanent records as soon as possible, so that musicians and dancers would be able to hear and see this part of Aboriginal culture, even if only at second hand."

The didgeridoo, as recently as 100 years ago, had a restricted distribution in Australia. Earlier researchers such as Elkin (1938) noted that it was "only known in Eastern Kimberley and the northern third of the Northern Territory". Although now played around the globe, traditional playing style and technique is confined to this region.

Tom Kelly painting a mago (didgeridoo)

A tremendous body of documentation resulted from these studies which included descriptive texts, field recordings and musical transcriptions. This work continues today revealing subtle changes in the instrument's distribution, influences from current events and recording technology which has improved dramatically since the early days. Field recordings were made commercially available and drew interest from a broader audience, but a lot of the attention focused on the instrument known as the didgeridoo rather than the musical and cultural context in was in. The recordings often featured demonstrations of the sounds and rhythms of the didgeridoo rather than its role as an accompaniment. Intended to showcase the instrument's range of harmonics and rhythmic accuracy, often these demonstrations (or solos) where mistaken to be traditional works by listeners. The notion of the didgeridoo as an instrument of self expression began forming in western minds.

Traditionally, a typical performance will consist of one or more singers (one of whom is the lead songman), each with a pair of sticks or something else percussive (at times makeshift) and one didgeridooist. Some genres of music do not use didgeridoo, but where used, only one is ever played at a time. If for some reason a didgeridooist is unavailable, the piece can still be performed.

The Third Wave: Musicians

In the mid to late 1960s several musicians started to reference the didgeridoo in their lyrics and include them in songs. Clancy Dunn's "Didgeridoo" song remains one of my favorites to this day. Rolf Harris' "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" contained one verse which contained the "new" word, "Didgeridoo", and that song did as much for the word didgeridoo as what Men at Work would later do for Vegemite™ in terms of introducing it to global usage. What could, to the rest of the world, be more Australian than Vegemite™ and the didgeridoo?

Western music has an aspect to it which is commercial. It's quite common today to hear musical works referred to as "product" and rated according to "commercial viability". Use of instruments from older indigenous cultures became very popular in the closing decades of the last century spawning an entirely new category of commercial music called "World Fusion" or "World Beat" and "New Age". It is in recordings from these genres that most people first heard the instrument. An entire genre exists now in many shops as "Didgeridoo Music". Amongst some recording artists the rush to record a CD of "Didgeridoo Music" was almost a mission imperative resulting in hundreds if not thousands of CDs becoming available to the consumer almost overnight.