WHAT IS A DIDGERIDOO ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN HARMONY WITH NATURE "As with imagemaking, Aboriginal music also unites consciousness with the invisible laws and energy patterns of nature. Aboriginal art is perhaps most accurately described as a method for gaining knowledge of nature and its invisible Dreaming. An example is the playing of the didjeridoo, a long wooden flute, perhaps the oldest musical instrument on earth. Click on image to enlarge Click on image to enlarge Traditionally, an Aborigine would go into nature and listen intensely to animal sounds, not just voices but also the flapping of wings or the thump of feet on the ground. The Aborigine would also listen to the sounds of wind, thunder, trees creaking, and water running. The essences of all these sounds were played with as much accuracy as possible within the droning sound of the didjereedoo. For the Aborigine, the observation of nature immediately requires a state of empathy, which leads to am imitative expression." Ref Voices of the First Day Published by Inner Traditional Back to Index WHAT IS A DIDGERIDOO? 10 FACTS 1    Possibly the world's oldest musical instrument 2.    A wind instrument originally found in Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. 3    Is made from limbs and tree trunks hollowed out by termites (insects). 4    Is cut to an average length of 1.3 metres and cleaned out with a stick. or hot coals. 5    Was used as an accompaniment to chants and songs. 6    Produces a low-pitch, resonant sound with complex rhythmic patterns. 7    In sure tribal groups only played by men but in most groups by men, women and children. 8    Traditional various forms at the didjeridoo where found in Central Australia around Alice Springs. 9.    The Didgeridoo is the sound of Australia. 10.    If the earth had a voice it would be the sound of the Didgeridoo. Back to Index TRADITIONAL DISTRIBUTION IN AUSTRALIA HISTORY OF THE WORD DIDGERIDOO Didgeridoo Also didjeridu, didjiridu and didjerry. 1919   Huon Times (Franklin) 24 January 4/3 The nigger crew is making merry with the Diridgery doo and the eternal ya-ya-ya- ye-ye-ye cry. 1919   Smith's Weekly (Sydney) 5 April 15/1 The Northern Territory Aborigines have an infernal û allegedly musical û instrument, composed of two feet of hollow bamboo. It produces but one sound û 'didjerry, didjerry, didjerry û ' and so on ad infinitum.. When a couple of niggers started grinding their infernal 'didjerry' half the hot night through, the blasphemous manager decided on revenge. 1925   M.TERRY Across Unknown Australia 190 The didjiri-du.. is a long hollow tube, often a tree root about 5 feet long, slightly curved at the lower end. The musician squats on the ground, resting his instrument on the earth. He fits his mouth into the straight or upper end and blows down it in a curious fashion. He produces an intermittent drone. ABORIGINAL NAMES Aboriginal names for the instruments as there are identifiable language groups. Some of its names, more especially those which suggest routes and directions of the spread of this aerophone within Australia, are given below. In T.B. Wilson's Narrative of a Voyage Round the World (1835) there is a drawing of an Aboriginal man of Raffles Bay, Coburg Peninsula, playing the instrument. Several different observers at Raffles Bay described it as being of bamboo and about three feet long. Names obtained (obviously different spellings of the same Aboriginal word) were eboro, ebero and ebroo. WHERE DOES THE WORD DIDGERIDOO COME FROM The fact that bamboo didjeridus were quite common among northerly groups in the Northern Territory during the last century is confirmed by the word 'bamboo' which is still used in the lingua franca by some Aborigines when referring to the instrument, though 'didjeridu' may be gaining ground. Click on image to enlarge BAMBOO? The suggestion here is that the first didjeridus were of bamboo; and that because of the availability of bamboo in the north-western region of the Northern Territory, the first didjeridu players may well have belonged to that region. Some observations on 'three very curious trumpets' made by R.Etheridge Jr. in 1893 are quoted for consideration in this context as they refer particularly to instruments of bamboo. Etheridge writes that '[the trumpets] are made from bamboo lengths, the diaphragms having been removed, probably by dropping live coals down the tubes. The bamboo, I am informed by Mr Stockdale, grows about the Adelaide River over an area of about one hundred miles by fifty, and reaches to a height of eighty feet, Mr J.H. Maiden tells me there are two bamboos indigenous in Australia, Bambusa arnhemica and B.moreheadiana, the latter a climbing species and only one or two inches in diameter. WHAT IS A DIDGERIDOO û NAMES According to Prof Trevor Jones, (Monash University) there are at least 45 different synonyms for the didgeridoo. Some are bambu, bombo, kambu, pampuu, (may reflect didge origins from bamboo), garnbak, illpirra, martba, Jiragi, Yiraki, Yidaki, (seem close dialectically and which means "bamoo" although no longer commonly made from bamboo). TRIBAL GROUP REGION NAME FOR DIDGERIDOO Anindilyakwa Groote Eylandt ngarrriralkpwina = play didge Gupapuygu Arnhem Land Yiraka= trachea, windpipe Djinang Arnhem Land Yirtakki Iwaidja Cobourg Peninsula Wuyimba = trachea buyigi = blow a didgeridoo Jawoyn Katherine artawirr = hollow log Gagudju Kakadu garnbak Lardil Mornington Island djibolu Ngarluma Roebourne, WA Kurmur Nyul Nyul Kimberleys WA ngaribi = bamboo Warray Adelaide River bambu = used for singing Mayali Alligator River martba Pintupi Central Australia paampu Arrernte Alice Springs Ilpirra Back to Index CULTURE | DIDGERIDOO | GALLERY | EMAIL US | HOME PAGE | © Aboriginal Australia Pty Ltd