Hicks Sticks, Didgeridoo and Aboriginal Cultural information links

Information about aboriginal culture and traditional use of didgeridoo:

Unlike many websites of didgeridoo sellers who hype romanticized and new age notions of the origins of didgeridoo, based on my personal experiences with aboriginal peoples in varied parts of Australia, I consider these websites the most valid sources of real information pertaining to the traditional aboriginal use of didgeridoo:

-Yidaki Dhawu (Story of Yidaki). This website was a project of Randy Graves to document from Yolngu themselves what Yidaki is and means within their own culture. This is the first stop to learn what didgeridoo really is traditionally.

-ididj: Guan Lim has devoted himself to the people of Arnhem Land Australia and has close relationships with many aboriginal people in the Northern Territories. He has worked tirelessly to help promote recognition and to raise funds for aboriginal people through sales of didgeridoos and other fund raising work. His website in addition to selling many expensive/fine traditional didgeridoos is a clearing house of information regarding the traditional distribution didgeridoo in Australia.

Traditional didgeridoo playing, learning resources.

Links provided take you to sources for these CDs that I have used and feel are reliable. You may be able to find the same items from different sources.

Milkay Munungurr Hard tongue Didgeridoo
This is only CD of its kind with actual verbal instruction and an enclosed booklet with diagrams on traditional yidaki playing technique. It is very good, but not the be all end all of Yolngu style yidaki playing, as there are many clan and personal variations on Yolngu technique, and more of the body involved than just the tongue.

Mago masterclass by Darryl Dikarrna and White Cockatoo
A nice CD with basic western Arnhem Land/ mago style technique info and play along tracks.

Djalu Gurruwiwi teaches Yidaki
(From the Yothu Yindi Foundation's Contemporary Master's Series")

Volume 1 offers excellent insight into verbalized mouth sounds and the virtuosity of Djalu, Larry Winiwini Gurruwiwi and a few others. It is not instructional in a western sense, as it is Djalu instructing other Yolngu on the fine points of playing yidaki in Dhangu (The Galpu clan's Yolngu matha, i.e. their native language).

Volume 2 includes more easily understood background and is a bit easier to follow and learn from. Djalu's "instruction" i.e. the stories behind the songs that the yidaki accompanies, are translated by his sister Dhanggal Gurruwiwi in English, and the yidaki songs/rhythms start simpler and easier. I found it much easier to start learning songs and technique from this CD compared to Volume 1 due to the slower pace.

Other recordings are not Instructional per se, but really, learning traditional style playing comes down to either going to Australia and finding an aboriginal teacher or listening to traditional recordings and mimicing what you hear. With that in mind, here is a short list of recordings I personally have learned much from:

The rest of the contemporary master's series:
These are disks performed by a number of Yolngu representing different clans styles and songs. Unlike the CDs above, which isolate the didgeridoo, these recordings put the didge in its actual traditional context as accompaniment to song:

"Waluka" Gurritjirri and Djalu Gurruwiwi

"Nundhirribala" Mungayana Nundhirribala

"Gobulu" Galarrwuy Yunupingu

"Mamba" Ralkurra Marika

Alice Moyle's "Songs from the Nothern Territories" Set

(There are numerous other traditional recordings listed on this same AIATSIS web page)

I also recommend the traditional tracks from all of Yothu Yindi's CDs, and especially their "Homeland Movement" CD

From there, please refer to the huge discography at manikay.com

And finally last but in no way least, once again, Guan Lim has provided one of the most comprehensive resources available with his ididj youtube site, where there are over 500 videos of yidaki, mago, ceremony and more. (and you will even find Yolngu using Hicks Sticks didgeridoos).