Breath of Life

CONTENTS

Cover Artworks 26 and 28, pages 69 and 70 Back cover Overview of the artworks 24, 25, 26 and 28

Page 2 Detail of artwork 14

9

BREATH OF LIFE: AN INTRODUCTION

Page 8 Detail of artwork 90

TO AN ICONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Page 13 Detail of artworks 4, 51, 72 and 71

GEORGES PETITJEAN

Page 18 Detail of artwork 37 Page 26 Detail of artwork 25

19

Page 36 Detail of artwork 87

YIDAKI: THE ORIGIN OF DIDJERIDU JEREMY CLOAKE

Pages 42–43 Detail of artwork 89 Page 60 Detail of artwork 19

27

Page 66 Detail of artworks 24, 25, 26 and 28

DJALU’S YIDAKI: BRIDGE OF SOUND JOHN CARTY

Page 71 Detail of artwork 29 Page 74 Detail of artwork 33

37

Page 97 Detail of artworks 62, 63 and 61

MERRKIYAWUY GANAMBARR-STUBBS

Page 101 Detail of artwork 69 Page 106 Detail of artwork 85 Page 136 Detail of artwork 71

Warning Members of Aboriginal communities are respectfully advised that some of the people mentioned in writing or depicted in photographs in the following pages have passed away.

All such mentions in this publication are with permission.

SETTLING OF THE SERPENT

42

ARTWORKS

137

LEXICON

139

ARTISTS

142

BIOGRAPHIES

145

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CONTENTS

Cover Artworks 26 and 28, pages 69 and 70 Back cover Overview of the artworks 24, 25, 26 and 28

Page 2 Detail of artwork 14

9

BREATH OF LIFE: AN INTRODUCTION

Page 8 Detail of artwork 90

TO AN ICONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Page 13 Detail of artworks 4, 51, 72 and 71

GEORGES PETITJEAN

Page 18 Detail of artwork 37 Page 26 Detail of artwork 25

19

Page 36 Detail of artwork 87

YIDAKI: THE ORIGIN OF DIDJERIDU JEREMY CLOAKE

Pages 42–43 Detail of artwork 89 Page 60 Detail of artwork 19

27

Page 66 Detail of artworks 24, 25, 26 and 28

DJALU’S YIDAKI: BRIDGE OF SOUND JOHN CARTY

Page 71 Detail of artwork 29 Page 74 Detail of artwork 33

37

Page 97 Detail of artworks 62, 63 and 61

MERRKIYAWUY GANAMBARR-STUBBS

Page 101 Detail of artwork 69 Page 106 Detail of artwork 85 Page 136 Detail of artwork 71

Warning Members of Aboriginal communities are respectfully advised that some of the people mentioned in writing or depicted in photographs in the following pages have passed away.

All such mentions in this publication are with permission.

SETTLING OF THE SERPENT

42

ARTWORKS

137

LEXICON

139

ARTISTS

142

BIOGRAPHIES

145

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ARNHEM LAND, SHOWING MIWATJ AND THE LARGER YOLŊU HOMELAND

DISTRIBUTION OF THE THREE MAJOR STYLES OF DIDJERIDU MUSIC

Yirrkala

Arnhem Land

Yolŋu homeland Gängän

Central Arnhem highway Blue Mud Bay

Yolŋu homeland

Yolŋu homeland

Groote Eylandt Roper River

G u n bo r r k

6

Wan gga

Bu n gg u l

Australia

Australia

7

ARNHEM LAND, SHOWING MIWATJ AND THE LARGER YOLŊU HOMELAND

DISTRIBUTION OF THE THREE MAJOR STYLES OF DIDJERIDU MUSIC

Yirrkala

Arnhem Land

Yolŋu homeland Gängän

Central Arnhem highway Blue Mud Bay

Yolŋu homeland

Yolŋu homeland

Groote Eylandt Roper River

G u n bo r r k

6

Wan gga

Bu n gg u l

Australia

Australia

7

YIDAKI: THE ORIGIN OF DIDJERIDU

Yidaki is duyu, madayin. It is a sacred instrument, the call to the spirits. The trumpet tone of the yidaki calls to ceremony. The people respond. They gather to sing and dance.

BARAYUWA MUNUŊGURR, DJAPU CLAN ARTIST AND CEREMONIAL YIDAKI PLAYER.

From the Yolŋu clans of northeast Arnhem Land, this call now echoes throughout the world. Although the didjeridu is widely accepted as an Australian icon, few people today are aware of the origins of this internationally recognised but commonly misunderstood instrument.

Didjeridu is a non-Aboriginal term derived from the articulatory phonetics of Aboriginal playing techniques from Arnhem Land. The didjeridu has numerous Aboriginal names, yet most of them are not known within the general public.

Prior to European colonisation, the “lip-reed aerophone instrument” was limited to the Northern extremes of Australia, most notably in Arnhem Land. Among the Yolŋu clans of northeast Arnhem Land, yidaki is the generic name for the naturally occurring termite-hollowed trunks of young Gadayka (Eucalyptus Tetrodonta) trees.

In a statement during the yidaki forum at the Garma Festival 2004, senior Gumatj clan leader Galarrwuy Yunupiŋu said the following, “The yidaki is not a national instrument and never will be.”

In a similar statement, Yalpi Yunupiŋu, senior lawman for the Gumatj clan, said, “Yidaki is for Yolŋu, that yäku (name) belongs to us. It’s from here (referencing northeast Arnhem Land). Other Aboriginal people have names for their own instrument, but yidaki, that belongs to us. That didjeridu is for everyone, open, for all the world to enjoy.”

Global popularisation as the didjeridu – an unfortunate by-product of colonisation – has resulted in the diverse range of Aboriginal instruments being misrepresented and somewhat displaced from the cultural and spiritual origins still held by Arnhem Land Aboriginals today.

This exhibition offers insight into one of the world’s oldest and most unique musical traditions. In this essay, the disparity between the didjeridu and the yidaki is highlighted as an invitation to learn, redefine and appreciate. It’s time to start from the beginning.

18

19

YIDAKI: THE ORIGIN OF DIDJERIDU

Yidaki is duyu, madayin. It is a sacred instrument, the call to the spirits. The trumpet tone of the yidaki calls to ceremony. The people respond. They gather to sing and dance.

BARAYUWA MUNUŊGURR, DJAPU CLAN ARTIST AND CEREMONIAL YIDAKI PLAYER.

From the Yolŋu clans of northeast Arnhem Land, this call now echoes throughout the world. Although the didjeridu is widely accepted as an Australian icon, few people today are aware of the origins of this internationally recognised but commonly misunderstood instrument.

Didjeridu is a non-Aboriginal term derived from the articulatory phonetics of Aboriginal playing techniques from Arnhem Land. The didjeridu has numerous Aboriginal names, yet most of them are not known within the general public.

Prior to European colonisation, the “lip-reed aerophone instrument” was limited to the Northern extremes of Australia, most notably in Arnhem Land. Among the Yolŋu clans of northeast Arnhem Land, yidaki is the generic name for the naturally occurring termite-hollowed trunks of young Gadayka (Eucalyptus Tetrodonta) trees.

In a statement during the yidaki forum at the Garma Festival 2004, senior Gumatj clan leader Galarrwuy Yunupiŋu said the following, “The yidaki is not a national instrument and never will be.”

In a similar statement, Yalpi Yunupiŋu, senior lawman for the Gumatj clan, said, “Yidaki is for Yolŋu, that yäku (name) belongs to us. It’s from here (referencing northeast Arnhem Land). Other Aboriginal people have names for their own instrument, but yidaki, that belongs to us. That didjeridu is for everyone, open, for all the world to enjoy.”

Global popularisation as the didjeridu – an unfortunate by-product of colonisation – has resulted in the diverse range of Aboriginal instruments being misrepresented and somewhat displaced from the cultural and spiritual origins still held by Arnhem Land Aboriginals today.

This exhibition offers insight into one of the world’s oldest and most unique musical traditions. In this essay, the disparity between the didjeridu and the yidaki is highlighted as an invitation to learn, redefine and appreciate. It’s time to start from the beginning.

18

19

DJALU’S YIDAKI: BRIDGE OF SOUND

Citizens of Australia: I am holding something which is big, for the entire world. My yidaki is known worldwide… There is a bridge from here to the other side of the world.

DJALU GURRUWIWI

In 1977, the year I was born, the Voyager spacecraft commenced its journey deep into the universe as an ambassador for life on Earth. An emissary of human cultures, of humanity itself. Carl Sagan and other thinkers debated what we should send into space to represent human culture. To explain ourselves to others. We sent writing, mathematics, and music; we sent Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Mozart… and we sent a recording of didjeridu.

Fifteen years earlier, on a secluded beach near Milingimbi in Arnhem Land, senior Aboriginal men Djawa, Mudpo and Waliparu gathered one night to record their traditional manikay (songs) with Australian anthropologist Sandra Le Brun Holmes. They could not have known that these recordings would one day be heading to the stars on a famous spacecraft. It may not have surprised them though. These were sacred songs, the creation texts of Yolŋu Country: of course they should travel with the most important achievements of humanity.

There may be aliens floating in the impossible silence of space right now, listening to this music. But here on Earth, most of us know almost nothing about it.

The didjeridu or “drone pipe” was traditionally used in the region of Northern Australia stretching from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the northeast, through Arnhem Land, and west across to the Kimberley. For the Yolŋu people of northeast Arnhem Land, the instrument is commonly known as yidaki, although within that appellation there are many subtle variations of the instrument with other names held by different clan groups. For groups in western Arnhem Land the instrument is known as mago, and by the Larrakia people of the Darwin area as mamiylim.

Yidaki is like a symbol of our culture, but its more than that, they’re also our spirit. Yidaki is our breath, our voice.

LARRY GURRUWIWI

26

27

DJALU’S YIDAKI: BRIDGE OF SOUND

Citizens of Australia: I am holding something which is big, for the entire world. My yidaki is known worldwide… There is a bridge from here to the other side of the world.

DJALU GURRUWIWI

In 1977, the year I was born, the Voyager spacecraft commenced its journey deep into the universe as an ambassador for life on Earth. An emissary of human cultures, of humanity itself. Carl Sagan and other thinkers debated what we should send into space to represent human culture. To explain ourselves to others. We sent writing, mathematics, and music; we sent Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Mozart… and we sent a recording of didjeridu.

Fifteen years earlier, on a secluded beach near Milingimbi in Arnhem Land, senior Aboriginal men Djawa, Mudpo and Waliparu gathered one night to record their traditional manikay (songs) with Australian anthropologist Sandra Le Brun Holmes. They could not have known that these recordings would one day be heading to the stars on a famous spacecraft. It may not have surprised them though. These were sacred songs, the creation texts of Yolŋu Country: of course they should travel with the most important achievements of humanity.

There may be aliens floating in the impossible silence of space right now, listening to this music. But here on Earth, most of us know almost nothing about it.

The didjeridu or “drone pipe” was traditionally used in the region of Northern Australia stretching from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the northeast, through Arnhem Land, and west across to the Kimberley. For the Yolŋu people of northeast Arnhem Land, the instrument is commonly known as yidaki, although within that appellation there are many subtle variations of the instrument with other names held by different clan groups. For groups in western Arnhem Land the instrument is known as mago, and by the Larrakia people of the Darwin area as mamiylim.

Yidaki is like a symbol of our culture, but its more than that, they’re also our spirit. Yidaki is our breath, our voice.

LARRY GURRUWIWI

26

27

SETTLING OF THE SERPENT

It is dark in the rainforest, under the trees, and her body looks black. But when she lies in the sun, we see the rainbows. She shines like a rainbow in the sun. She is the Rainbow Serpent, she is Wititj. The travels of the Rainbow Serpent created the land, the people. Wititj gave birth to the Dhuwa clans in Arnhem Land and all across Australia too. She created Country as she wove her sinuous passage. This songspiral, the Settling of the Serpent, is the end of her journey.

As she travels, the Rainbow Serpent – also known as Ralinymana, Nyukumana and Gunbirrŋu – sways, sashaying like a model making her way down the catwalk. She is sensing, smelling her way, putting her smell on the land. Knowing that land, making those boundaries, naming them one after another. Threading her way. As she moves, she clears the area with her body, flattening the grass, creating a track through the bush. These are the boundaries she creates and claims. If another totem comes to that area, they can smell that she has been there and they will turn away. That is why she puts a smell on her children as she blesses them. She does this as she passes. It is part of the marking of the children, making the boundaries. Everything she touches becomes sacred, has a name, because the serpent claimed it.

But Wititj is exhausted. It has been a long journey, so much singing of the sacred places, so much giving knowledge, giving life to the land, to the animals, and so much making of boundaries. Wititj is so very tired. So she settles down, curled in a spiral with her head in the centre. She rests her weary head at the centre of her coiled body, marking a boundary of the sacred territory she has worked so hard to create and claim. When women keen milkarri and men sing, they sing the boundary. Singing and keening the land, crying the land, marking the land. They are signing the land by being there. Every Yolŋu territory is marked by that Law. Laklak, our eldest sister and leader of the Gay’Wu Group of Women, the collective, is Wititj. Some of her names come from the serpent. Laklak has the names Nuliny, Warraday, Djärri’mi – they all mean the Rainbow Serpent and they were given to her by our Gälpu grandmother.

Before Laklak was born, before she had grown big in Mum’s tummy, she visited as a spirit. It was at Gutjitj, a freshwater waterhole in the mangroves, where Mum had gone. Mum hadn’t told anyone yet she was pregnant. There was a big snake, a bäpi, named Wulara. It was the spirit of Laklak. The land

36

37

SETTLING OF THE SERPENT

It is dark in the rainforest, under the trees, and her body looks black. But when she lies in the sun, we see the rainbows. She shines like a rainbow in the sun. She is the Rainbow Serpent, she is Wititj. The travels of the Rainbow Serpent created the land, the people. Wititj gave birth to the Dhuwa clans in Arnhem Land and all across Australia too. She created Country as she wove her sinuous passage. This songspiral, the Settling of the Serpent, is the end of her journey.

As she travels, the Rainbow Serpent – also known as Ralinymana, Nyukumana and Gunbirrŋu – sways, sashaying like a model making her way down the catwalk. She is sensing, smelling her way, putting her smell on the land. Knowing that land, making those boundaries, naming them one after another. Threading her way. As she moves, she clears the area with her body, flattening the grass, creating a track through the bush. These are the boundaries she creates and claims. If another totem comes to that area, they can smell that she has been there and they will turn away. That is why she puts a smell on her children as she blesses them. She does this as she passes. It is part of the marking of the children, making the boundaries. Everything she touches becomes sacred, has a name, because the serpent claimed it.

But Wititj is exhausted. It has been a long journey, so much singing of the sacred places, so much giving knowledge, giving life to the land, to the animals, and so much making of boundaries. Wititj is so very tired. So she settles down, curled in a spiral with her head in the centre. She rests her weary head at the centre of her coiled body, marking a boundary of the sacred territory she has worked so hard to create and claim. When women keen milkarri and men sing, they sing the boundary. Singing and keening the land, crying the land, marking the land. They are signing the land by being there. Every Yolŋu territory is marked by that Law. Laklak, our eldest sister and leader of the Gay’Wu Group of Women, the collective, is Wititj. Some of her names come from the serpent. Laklak has the names Nuliny, Warraday, Djärri’mi – they all mean the Rainbow Serpent and they were given to her by our Gälpu grandmother.

Before Laklak was born, before she had grown big in Mum’s tummy, she visited as a spirit. It was at Gutjitj, a freshwater waterhole in the mangroves, where Mum had gone. Mum hadn’t told anyone yet she was pregnant. There was a big snake, a bäpi, named Wulara. It was the spirit of Laklak. The land

36

37

42

43

42

43

Set of artworks 1 to 5 1 Jack Nawilil (1945), Balngarra clan, central Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Mago, c. 2002 Natural pigments on wood 132 cm Christian Som Collection

44

45

Set of artworks 1 to 5 1 Jack Nawilil (1945), Balngarra clan, central Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Mago, c. 2002 Natural pigments on wood 132 cm Christian Som Collection

44

45

30 Djalu Gurruwiwi (c. 1930), Gälpu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Bilma / Clapsticks, unknown date Natural pigments on wood 27 and 36.5 cm Michiel Teijgeler Collection 31 Gurrukumuŋu Gurruwiwi (1973), Gälpu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Bilma / Clapsticks, unknown date Natural pigments on wood 36 and 52.5 cm Michiel Teijgeler Collection 32 Gurritjirri Gurruwiwi (deceased), Gälpu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Bilma / Clapsticks, unknown date Natural pigments on wood 27 and 33 cm Michiel Teijgeler Collection

72

73

30 Djalu Gurruwiwi (c. 1930), Gälpu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Bilma / Clapsticks, unknown date Natural pigments on wood 27 and 36.5 cm Michiel Teijgeler Collection 31 Gurrukumuŋu Gurruwiwi (1973), Gälpu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Bilma / Clapsticks, unknown date Natural pigments on wood 36 and 52.5 cm Michiel Teijgeler Collection 32 Gurritjirri Gurruwiwi (deceased), Gälpu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Dhuwa moiety Bilma / Clapsticks, unknown date Natural pigments on wood 27 and 33 cm Michiel Teijgeler Collection

72

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68 Datjirri #1 Wunuŋmurra (1959), Dhalwaŋu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Yirritja moiety, painted

by Djilirrma Munuŋgurr (1954), Djapu clan, Dhuwa moiety Yidaki / Didgeridoo / Didjeridu, 2011 Natural pigments on wood 145 cm Christian Som Collection 69 Datjirri #1 Wunuŋmurra (1959), Dhalwaŋu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Yirritja moiety, painted

by Djilirrma Munuŋgurr (1954), Djapu clan, Dhuwa moiety Yidaki / Didgeridoo / Didjeridu, 2012 Natural pigments on wood 138 cm Christian Som Collection

100

101

68 Datjirri #1 Wunuŋmurra (1959), Dhalwaŋu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Yirritja moiety, painted

by Djilirrma Munuŋgurr (1954), Djapu clan, Dhuwa moiety Yidaki / Didgeridoo / Didjeridu, 2011 Natural pigments on wood 145 cm Christian Som Collection 69 Datjirri #1 Wunuŋmurra (1959), Dhalwaŋu clan, northeast Arnhem Land, Yirritja moiety, painted

by Djilirrma Munuŋgurr (1954), Djapu clan, Dhuwa moiety Yidaki / Didgeridoo / Didjeridu, 2012 Natural pigments on wood 138 cm Christian Som Collection

100

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BREATH OF LIFE Presented at Fondation Opale, Lens / Crans-Montana (Switzerland) from 13 June 2021 to 17 April 2022

BREATH OF LIFE

5 CONTINENTS EDITIONS

All rights reserved – Fondation Opale For the present edition

PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTION

Fondation Opale

Annarita De Sanctis

© 2021 – 5 Continents Editions No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

EDITORIAL COORDINATION

Georges Petitjean

Elena Carotti

Bérengère Primat

in collaboration with

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Lucia Moretti EDITORIAL ASSISTANCE

Nathalie Bizart

PROJECT DESIGN

5 Continents Editions

Lara Gariboldi

Piazza Caiazzo 1 20124 Milan, Italy

THE PUBLICATION

PROOFREADING

www.fivecontinentseditions.com

Nathalie Bizart ISBN 978-88-7439-963-5

AUTHORS

John Carty

EDITING

Jeremy Cloake

Charles Gute

Merkkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs Georges Petitjean

Distributed by ACC Art Books throughout the world, excluding Italy.

TRANSLATION

Distributed in Italy and Switzerland

Lise Garond

by Messaggerie Libri S.p.A.

COLOUR SEPARATION

Printed and bound in Italy in May 2021

Pixel Studio, Bresso, Italy

by Tecnostampa – Pigini Group Printing Division, Loreto – Trevi for 5 Continents Editions, Milan