Digeridoo

sisters who represent the Pleiades star cluster. These Dreamings are passed on and shared by many Aboriginal communities across Australia.

Traditionally, Dreaming stories are told through media such as the haunting sound of the didgeridoo with songs and dances and also by symbolic drawings. These designs were used as body paint decorations for corroborees (Aboriginal dance ceremony which may take the form of a sacred ritual or an informal gathering) and as sand paintings for ceremonies. Today paintings are created using traditional ochre and modern-day materials, but the use of traditional symbols and art styles keeps this ancient culture alive. The symbols used in contemporary Aboriginal paintings are the same as those found on cave paintings and rock Art. The same obligations to pass on their own Aboriginal cultural dreaming story is depicted in Aboriginal Art. It is a visual expression of these beliefs and a way to preserve their culture, beliefs and history.

A didgeridoo is an Australian Aboriginal wind instrument in the form of a long wooden tube, traditionally made from a hollow branch, which is blown to produce a deep, resonant sound, varied by rhythmic accents of timbre and volume. The didgeridoo is a music instrument, important in Aboriginal ceremonies. Today it is used to play contemporary music, but traditionally this was not the role of the didgeridoo. The voice of the didgeridoo was part of story-telling and teaching. The didgeridoo was traditionally used as an accompaniment along with chants, singers with ‘bilma’ (Tapping sticks) and dancers, often in ceremonies. In a few aboriginal groups in certain ceremonies men only played the didgeridoo, but in many groups, outside of ceremony, men, women and children played it. The word didgeridoo can be spelt many different ways, none of which are Aboriginal names for the instrument. The word "didgeridoo" was a western word given to the instrument around 100 years ago. For more info see 'The Word Didgeridoo'.

The Didgeridoo is a wooden instrument thought to have originated in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Researchers have suggested it may be the world's oldest musical instrument, The oldest cave paintings were dated 3000 to 5000 years old. It can be over 40,000 years old. There is a little evidence of the didgeridoo being used as far south as the Alice Springs region of Australia, but traditionally never in the southern three quarters of the country. It has been suggested that the Didgeridoo was an adaptation of traded instruments from India and/or Asia, this is possibly why it was mainly used by coastal tribes of the far North of Australia.

Traditionally didgeridoos were made from eucalyptus tree trunks and limbs hollowed out, while still living, by termites, or from bamboo in the far north of Australia. Traditionally the termite hollowed Didgeridoo was cut to an average length of 130 to 160 cm and cleaned out with a stick or sapling. Today didgeridoos are made from a large variety of materials such as Glass, Leather, Hemp Fibre, Ceramic, Plastic, Fibreglass, Carbon Fibre, solid timbers carved out, logs drilled out, dried/hollowed Agave cactus stems, Aluminium and other metals and just about any material which can be formed into a hollow tube!