A newsletter for the Portland area Didjeridu player......Dec 2000 Volume 6 Issue 12
by Ed Drury
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The Garma festival is an event hosted annually by the Yothu Yindi
Foundation. It is a complete immersion into the Yolngu culture which features
activities, performances of ceremony and classes in various aspect of culture
like language, fibre crafts and of most interest to many, the yirdaki master
class. In this installment of the didjeri-news, I talked with one of the
participants of the yirdaki master class about his experience at Garma
2000. - Ed
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[Ed] How and when did you first become interested in playing the didjeridu, Mike?
[Mike] I think I probably heard the sound of the didjeridu as part of the soundtrack of the film "Walkabout" in the early '70's then really thought nothing more about it until the British band Jamiroquai used Wallis Buchanan's playing to great effect on their first album in about '94. I became curious about the sound and made a really bad attempt at constructing a didjeridu from a couple of length's of cardboard tube, I even went to the extent of pouring molten wax down the inside to try to mimic the rough contours left by termites!
Coincidentally at the same time I saw an advert for "Authentic Aboriginal Didgeridoo's" by a shop called "Aboriginalia" in Broadway in the Cotswolds and ended up with a little Eb stringybark with which I began to learn to play.
[Ed] So there was an Aboriginal connection to your interest from the start? If you saw the movie Walkabout, I would guess that you had an interest in the culture perhaps even before you discovered the instrument?
[Mike] Probably more an interest in Jenny Agutter at that time! However for the last six years I have been studying for a Psychology Degree (with the Open University in the UK) which I completed last December. Certainly this has changed the way I think about other people and Culture. The Social Psychology module was one of my favourites and Cultural comparison was a thread throughout the course. My recent visit to the Garma festival in Arnhem Land was very interesting from that aspect- Although I'm no expert it was plain that Aboriginal Culture having developed in relative isolation was very different from modern western society.
[Ed] I wonder if you could tell me a bit about the didjeridu scene where you live? Kind of the environment you were coming from prior to Garma.
[Mike] As with many players I am fairly isolated from other Didjeridu players so my main interaction is through the Mills list although I find having been a member for several years the same questions keep recurring again and again! I have met and become friends with several UK players from bumping into each other at Workshops over the years but the opportunity to meet and play is rare. Several workshops I went to were held in Broadway with Derek Furlong, a very powerful and accomplished player who taught me allot but he had a "falling out" with Joy from Aboriginalia who ran the events and the workshops seem to have stopped. One event worth mentioning was the "Didj up North" in '98. We were lucky enough to get sponsorship so in one weekend workshop we had Alan Dargin, Stephen Kent ( with Eda Maxym) , Shozo and Phil Coyningham (and the rest of Reconciliation) and Ed from Woad another superb player and tutor. All the players did an excellent evening set. I just wish we could get more events of that calibre
[Ed] So opportunity to come to Garma came along and you went. How did you hear about it? Did you have a primary goal in going like improving your yirdaki playing, or studying culture? Or did you not have any preconceived expectation?
[Mike] The Garma festival was mentioned on the Mills Didjeridu list and through that I contacted Fred Tietjen and asked if there were any places available. I suppose like most didjeridu players I have always wanted to visit Australian and in particular Arnhem Land. The N.E. Arnhem Land style of playing seems to represent the more complex form of Aboriginal styles. It is always difficult to attempt to play in a different style from listening to recordings and I felt I wanted to expand my playing by approaching the Aboriginal style.
Garma I hoped would present an unique opportunity to see something of the culture and spend time with someone like Djalu Gurruwiwi who is a renowned Yirdaki maker, as well as meeting players from all over the world. I had few preconceptions except that I thought the presented image of Aboriginal society would probably be carefully "filtered" because of the media coverage.
[Ed] In that way, did it present you with the opportunities to spend time with Djalu and other yolngu? How was the "filter" or media presence?
[Mike] I and the others attending the "Yirdaki Masterclass" spent quite a lot of time with Djalu and his family almost every day. Whether it was in a class setting or following him in the bush as he selected and cut trees. The other Yolngu were very friendly and we had plenty of opportunity to speak with them. Especially at mealtimes or waiting for the showers but also on occasion someone would wander in to our area of the campsite and stop for a chat.
I found the media presence very intrusive. I am aware they were there at the request of the Yothu Yindi Foundation and they had a job to do but they did seem to be particularly ignorant of anyone else's presence and enjoyment of the festival. The sight of a cameraman running about and practically sticking his camera up the nose of the dancers stays in my memory. Another aspect of the media presence was the ban on alcohol at Garma. I became much more aware of how alcohol and its abuse has affected the Indigenous population as we spent time there. It does seem that the Yolngu's worries about the granting of a liquor licence to the first hotel in Nulhumbuy was well founded. It is a serious problem that I hope the Government and the Yolngu people can work together to address.
[Ed] One 'solution' to the alcohol problem which was introduced by well meaning people in the past was the introduction of Kava. I don't know if you saw or heard any evidence of that abuse as well? I guess the point of this inquiry is that there has been a pattern in the NT of interventions on the part of non-yolngu people both well intended and not, which has compounded the existing problem or created newer potentially worse ones. I wonder if you might agree with me that we have problems within our own cultures which if we did our home work on, everyone including the Yolngu would be better off?
[Mike] While in Darwin I bought a book called "Why Warriors lie down and die" by Richard Trudgen I'm still in the process of reading it but it does seem to be a powerful attempt to explain and understand the health problems of Yolngu peoples and I would recommend reading it to anyone who wished to understand a little more. ISBN 0-646-39587-4
At Garma parallels were drawn between the alcohol abuse of Aborigines and the North American Indigenous population and it would seem that any progress in ways to combat their problems would have a least some use to Australian Aboriginal peoples. As to Kava I hadn't heard of it until it was mentioned in the "Why Warriors" book and so I would not have recognised abuse had I seen any.
In the UK alcohol abuse is prevalent in many areas of society but particularly in areas of high unemployment. It is only one particularly visible symptom of a disenfranchised population and not the root cause of all ills. The high teenage suicide rate amongst Aborigines was also mentioned as a particular problem by someone who had spent many years working in the youth justice system.
I'm obviously no expert on the situation and I guess any solutions I might think of would have been already tried but it did seem from talking to both Aboriginal and White Australians at Garma that the present Australian government were paying only "lip-service" to a problem they wished would quietly go away.
[Ed] Leaving the social problems of our day behind (wouldn't that be nice?), how's your Yirdaki playing since Garma? Did it change? Have you been able to incorporate what you learned there with what you already knew? Or was it like learning a completely different instrument?
[Mike] Well one of the main reasons for going to Garma was the desire to play some different i.e. non western style didjeridu. To say it was difficult was an understatement, not only do you have to learn completely alien tongue positions you have to reach them quickly and accurately. Almost like trying to speak a language phrase as fast as a native speaker with no accent in the space of a few days, we all had difficulty but it did generate a new enthusiasm for the instrument. The style we were learning also seems to be easier on a particular shape of instrument that (not surprisingly) seems to be typical of N.E. Arnhem Land. The phrases the native players used were often long and complex- thinking about this since my return I believe it may be a reflection of their oral tradition. From birth Aborigine children are exposed to a culture that requires accurate repetition of the spoken word. This must enhance the ability to remember and accurately repeat complex rhythm phrasing when playing Yirdaki.As to incorporation into my existing playing, perhaps but it's going to take a long time!
[Ed] Was there opportunity to learn language? Do you feel that, apart from the obvious cultural understanding, that a serious student of yirdaki might benefit from some language study?
[Mike] Yes, several opportunities existed for Language acquisition, there was a language tent that was always available with a variety of books and leaflets. Yolngu words were introduced at every opportunity; in everyday conversations, in Yirdaki tutorials generally and of course in a specific Language tutorial by Michael Christie which I felt was particularly valuable.
I now firmly believe that a Language background is definitely necessary in that there are several unique and specific tongue positions in the Yolngu language which would obviously effect any attempt to reproduce their style of playing. Whilst it is probably not necessary to completely learn the language (although it would be a real sign of interest in Aboriginal Culture!) to be able to read Yolngu Rhythm mnemonics and to be able to pronounce them correctly and quickly is I believe critical in adapting to their style of playing. I think that's why Western players have such a hard time approaching Aboriginal style playing, we just don't have the mind-body control necessary to move your tongue into the correct positions that the ability to speak a language fluently confers. The answer (I hope) is to work on several phrases, learn to pronounce them correctly then speed them up to Language speed. Djalu often compared playing to talking to friends. I suppose it's a bit like learning to speak a few sentences of French or German perfectly so you have no trace of accent.
[Ed] When you were in the "top end" did you have much opportunity to learn about visual arts? I recently learned how to make a dilly bag. Major thing, that. I'm wondering what opportunities there might have been at Garma to learn more about art and crafts?
[Mike] There were workshops on arts and crafts at Garma but the Yirdaki classes provided such a full schedule that we had little time to visit other areas. Djalu's wife (and sister?) were with us during the classes and painted continuously, both paintings and Yirdaki. Probably the greatest opportunity to see and learn about art was in the Yirrkala art centre. There was a large display of art for sale, a museum of art from different regions and the two large church panels. I bought a book called "Saltwater" while I was there which illustrated and explained a selection of the art and artists of Arnhem Land. Finally the Aboriginal fine arts Gallery in Darwin has some beautiful if very expensive art from the best known Aboriginal artists.
[Ed] I understand you met at least one mutual friend in Australia. Peter Lister. I know that you've posted to the list about experiences in Australia not directly related to Garma, but we would enjoy it if you could talk a little bit about that and what it was like for you to return home after your trip.
[Mike] I had mentioned to Peter I would be in Darwin on the way back and he turned up in a Cafe as a few of us were eating lunch. Peter was accompanied by Frank Thill whose name I had heard of from some of his didj's that were on sale in Aboriginal fine arts.
Geoff Brown and I were invited back to Franks house with Peter and we had a long chat about the Didjeridu business, Frank from a non aboriginal producers point of view and Geoff and myself from a purchaser. I agree with him that some of the Aborigines who produce top quality instruments seem to be paid proportionally very little for them. This seems to be improving somewhat as there are ways of buying almost direct. For example the Yirrkala Art Centre which we visited has an e-mail address and Frank with Guan are trying to set up a website where you can buy Djalu's Yirdaki direct. Frank was very open about the business which I found refreshing. His Didjeridu's are really impressive- individually selected, very highly finished, and of superb quality; many are excellently painted by Balpiyangay Guruwwiwi, (Djalu's Daughter).
Coming back was a little odd. From living in tents in Arnhemland to a small Welsh seaside town in about 48 hours. I wanted to tell everyone about what I had seen and learnt but it was difficult to tell people who had not travelled themselves. Even one person who I had thought of as reasonably well educated asked whether I thought the Aborigines I had met were of an older species of human!
Hopefully the more people who take the time to go and visit, even for a short while, will come back with a perspective of how complex Aboriginal culture really is and how it is continually threatened by western influences.
You can send email to Mike at : wanderingdidj@hotmail.com
Questions about this and other articles should be sent to Ed Drury