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| home | news lDidgeridoo popularity cuts both waysTranscript 19 December 2002 JOHN HIGHFIELD: Well, for something that's been played for thousands of years, the didgeridoo has taken a long time to become a prized commodity around the world.
It's certainly that these days. The didgeridoo's importance, though, as a cultural artefact, seems has been overtaken by its monetary value in a booming global market. But as demand grows, so too does poaching for the prized didgeridoo timber on traditional Aboriginal land, particularly in the Northern Territory, the Top End, where it's known more as the "yedaki". Now, as Northern Australian correspondent Anne Barker reports for us, Aboriginal leaders are looking at ways to wrest back some control of their cultural icon. [Sound of didgeridoo] ANNE BARKER: Not far from Katherine in the Northern Territory is the Aboriginal community of Wugularr, the home of arguably Australia's greatest ever didgeridoo master, Old Man Blanasi, who died a few months ago. [didgeridoo] Here at Woogoolah in the heart of Australia's didgeridoo country, Aboriginal craftsmen still cut and harvest didgeridoos according to tradition, looking for eucalypt trees hollowed by termites, the cutting the stems and stripping the bark. But as the didgeridoo industry expands and demand outstrips supply, the axe has given way to chainsaws and illegal harvesting has become rampant. VERONICA BIRRELL [phonetic]: We've seen vehicles drive past with the didgs at the back, on the back of the, tray back and all the trailers is just chock-a-block. ANNE BARKER: Veronica Birrell runs the craft shop at Wugularr where over-harvesting or downright poaching by non-indigenous people sneaking onto Aboriginal land is a growing problem. VERONICA BIRRELL: There was some instances where, you know, they physically pulled 'em over and just told 'em, you know, if you don't stop coming out, we'll do something to ya. ANNE BARKER: Non-indigenous harvesters are allowed to take didgeridoo stems from traditional land if they have a permit from the Parks and Wildlife Service. But the number of permits last year was a tiny fraction of the number of didgeridoos sold. Josh Forner at the Tropical Centre for Wildlife Management in Darwin estimates that the vast bulk of didgeridoos on sale in the Northern Territory, and possibly Australia, are from illegally harvested timber. JOSH FORNER: I'd say the majority of didgeridoos are harvested without a permit. Simply by the fact that Parks and Wildlife permits every year average about 1500 and a didgeridoo shop in Darwin could sell between five and 10 thousand a year. ANNE BARKER: All of which has led to calls to review the permit system to give indigenous people more power to control harvesting on their own land. Nick Decandillo [phonetic] from the Jarwin Association is one of those passionate about the need for reform. NICK DECANDILLO: There are many non-Aboriginal people that may have a permit and they over-harvest. I mean a permit may be worth a couple of hundred didgeridoos and they make agreements with pastoralists and they make agreements with some Aboriginal people who, you know, see the way to a quick dollar as well. And they go in and they harvest and harvest probably thousands at a time. ANNE BARKER: Who would hold those permits? NICK DECANDILLO: Permits should either be controlled by Aboriginal people, and if it's a non-Aboriginal person that is, has a permit, then it should be done in joint-venture with an Aboriginal person or a community so that some of the money goes back to Aboriginal people. ANNE BARKER: The Jarwin Association and the Parks and Wildlife Service are also looking at a plan for a tagging system similar to the Woolmark label to identify didgeridoos that are cut, painted and sold by traditional communities. Parks and Wildlife officer, Helen Puckey believes it could help stamp out illegal harvesting. HELEN PUCKEY: Certainly in Western Australia they have implemented that tagging system such that every stick that is for sale should have a permanent tag on it. And they can hopefully keep checks on how many are being harvested and where they're being sold, and where they're being exported and that sort of thing. And certainly if we can come in line with that, with that kind of a tagging system, then we may be able to get on top of where the illegal harvests are coming from. JOHN HIGHFIELD: Helen Puckey of the Northern Territory Parks & Wildlife Service with Anne Barker. And tomorrow in Part 2 of a special report on the "yedaki", Anne considers the question, can a white fellah make a dinky-di didgeridoo. Part Two December 20, 2002 JOHN HIGHFIELD: You may recall on The World Today yesterday, we heard about the problems of timber poaching in the didgeridoo industry. Well today in a second part of our series on this, we look at the issue of authenticity. Can a dinky-di didg be made by a white fella? Well, the didgeridoo, or yedaki, as it's known in the traditional homeland of the Yungya [phonetic] people up in the top end, in the Northern Territory, has virtually replaced the boomerang as the hottest item on the Aboriginal art market. But indigenous leaders estimate that only one in five is the real thing, cut and painted by traditional craftsmen. What's more upsetting, they're accusing many white retailers of pinching traditional sacred designs. Our Northern Australia correspondent Anne Barker reports. [didgeridoo sound] GLEN BIRD: Well the key to getting good sounds, I always tell customers, think like a horse. So a horse goes, phrrr, phrrr. ANNE BARKER: Glen Bird in Katherine sells didgeridoos to local tourists. He runs one of several didgeridoo shops around town. GLEN BIRD: And you vibe, your lips vibrate, real easy. Phrrr. Phrr. ANNE BARKER: But unlike most other shops, Glen Bird is an indigenous retailer, selling instruments cut and painted only by indigenous people. GLEN BIRD: This is what I'll sound like, like any beginner. [didg] ANNE BARKER: As the didgeridoo market booms, more and more it's white people who dominate the industry, cutting and painting their own sticks. Some are now imported from the Philippines and Indonesia, leaving traditional craftsmen and even consumers wondering if these non-indigenous products can really be called didgeridoos at all. COCO WILLIAMS: All these ones with the varnish, I make them. And I don't try and make out that I'm Aboriginal. I just say, listen, I make them as a musical instrument. I do, I make 'em in the best white man way possible with technology. ANNE BARKER: Coco Williams, a non-indigenous retailer off Katherine's main street, believes the didgeridoo is now a global commodity and anyone has a right to make them. COCO WILLIAMS: It's a traditional thing but it's gone onto, as a musical instrument. ANNE BARKER: What do you say to the indigenous people who argue that it should be them only that is allowed to cut and paint and manufacture didgeridoos? COCO WILLIAMS: I think that's being romantic. There's people making, in any culture, in any religion in the world, there's people making and using many cultures. There's probably somebody in Australia making concrete Buddhas. ANNE BARKER: Aboriginal leaders aren't necessarily opposed to white people making and selling didgeridoos. But many are angry at retailers who pass off their products as authentic and what they perceive as the theft of traditional indigenous designs. Veronica Birrell from the Wugularr community says Aboriginal people themselves are to blame for giving away their sacred knowledge. VERONICA BIRRELL: They sit with, with an Aboriginal person and they watch how he do, he does the paintings, you know. How he draws his bird or whatever, his animal, and do their art. And I know of one bloke who, who's done that and he's now being recognised everywhere for his artwork. [Aboriginal musicians] ANNE BARKER: Indigenous communities are now looking for ways to increase their involvement in the didgeridoo industry, and restore some authenticity to the market. Nick di Candilo of from the Jawoyn Association, which represents communities near Katherine, says more and more consumers want the real thing, didgeridoos cut and painted only by indigenous artists. NICK DI CANDILO: I think a lot of didgeridoos in the marketplace are not genuine in the fact that they are cut early, they are drilled, they make a sound, yes. No problem. And a non-discerning buyer would buy that as a token, as an ornament probably more than a playing instrument. A souvenir is something is not handled by an Aboriginal person I believe. And I think the market needs to differentiate between the two. ANNE BARKER: At the end of the day, can you really say that indigenous people have the right to retain control of the industry? When you say it has become a global industry, is it now something that really doesn't belong to indigenous people any more? NICK DI CANDILO: No, I still think, no, I still think it belongs to Aboriginal people, in terms of a cultural artefact, it is, you cannot say intellectual copyright, but I'd use the term "cultural artefact", I think. We need to go to authentication and whether it's a limited number of harvested instruments that are tagged and that constitutes a genuine article versus any old didgeridoo you can buy in a shop which doesn’t have the tag. JOHN HIGHFIELD: Nick di Candilo, from the Jawoyn Association, talking to Anne Barker. Source:ABC Radio: The World Today related links :
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