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I came in contact with the 'Didge' and Aboriginal culture while working in Australia in the Early 1980's. An Australian named Don Rosella introduced me to the didge through his sensual playing-style. We became friends and colleagues and with him I was able to travel onto Aboriginal settlements and experience Australian Aboriginal culture first-hand.

Read Stephen Kent's stream-of-consciousness account of a recent performance in San Francisco ===>here

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My own style of playing is contemporary and probably owes more to my travels globally as a musician than it does to any direct musical influence from Aboriginal playing styles. However I am forever grateful for the experiences I have had with Aboriginal people and in living on the sacred land that has been theirs since the beginning of time. These people and their powerful land have indelibly affected my life, and my spirit forever. Though I use the Didjeridu as a voice for my own musical ideas and expression it can never be separated from the world of the Aboriginal peoples of Australia and their struggle for Land Rights and Human Rights in their own country. Respect.

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S.K.

The Didjeridu is a wind instrument native to Aborigines in the north of Australia. Australian Aborigines have occupied Australia for at least 40,000 years but it is thought that the didjeridu has been used in their ceremonial culture for only about 1,500 years of that time. Approximately forty aboriginal names for it are known where it is used, from the north of Western Australia through the Arnhem Land peninsula to Northern Queensland. In Arnhemland it is known as'Yidaki'. Nowadays it is also played by other Aborigines, all over Australia, for whom playing it is a new tradition. The Didjeridu is played with other instruments such as the Bilma [Click Sticks] and is often used as an accompaniment to song and dance. It is also played in ceremonial functions and in story telling. The Didjeridu is traditionally a termite-hollowed Eucalyptus log with the bark removed and the ends internally scraped or, nowadays, chiseled and rasped to improve the playing sound. Usually a wax or resin mouthpiece is worked on to the playing end, roughly the same in diameter as that of a tuba. Some trees used in Didjeridu production are: Stringy Bark (Eucalyptus Tetrodonta), Wooly Butt (Eucalyptus Miniata), River Red Gum (Eucalyptus Camaldulensis), Ironwood (Erythrophlaeum Laboucherii) and in more recent years in South Australia, Box Gum and Wattle [though the instrument is not native to South Australia]. Sometimes Bamboo is used . It is played using a breathing technique known as Circular Breathing--where the player becomes almost like a human bagpipe--continuously blowing air out of the mouth while taking it in through the nose. A good player can keep continuous sound going for hours on end. The sound is affected by changing the flow and shape of the air through the mouth--much as you would form words to speak. Voice is also used to add dynamic nuance and texture. In the last two decades there has been a growing awareness of Aboriginal culture in the wider world, a spin-off of which is the Didjeridu diaspora. The phenomenal amount of interest in the instrument has resulted in an enormous, and growing, number of players all over the planet, using the Didgeridu in a non-traditional way and creating a new music with it. Global interest in the Didjeridu has spawned all manner of Didgeridu-like instruments constructed from many other non-traditional materials such as Agave cactus, Hogweed, ABS and PVC piping, drilled wood, glass, brass, clay.

These yidaki >>> (didjeridus) were made by Djalu Gurruwiwi -- available at Wicked Sticks Gallery

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