The Didgeridoo

"As with imagemaking, Aboriginal music also unites consciousness with the invisible laws and energy patterns of nature. Aboriginal art is perhaps most accurately described as a method for gaining knowledge of nature and its invisible Dreaming. An example is the playing of the didjeridoo, a long wooden flute, perhaps the oldest musical instrument on earth." (aboriginalart.com)

Traditionally, an Aborigine would go into nature and listen intensely to animal sounds, not just voices but also the flapping of wings or the thump of feet on the ground. The Aborigine would also listen to the sounds of wind, thunder, trees creaking, and water running. The essences of all these sounds were played with as much accuracy as possible within the droning sound of the didjereedoo. For the Aborigine, the observation of nature immediately requires a state of empathy, which leads to am imitative expression."

The fact that bamboo didjeridus were quite common among northerly groups in the Northern Territory during the last century is confirmed by the word 'bamboo' which is still used in the lingua franca by some Aborigines when referring to the instrument, though 'didjeridu' may be gaining ground.

The suggestion here is that the first didjeridus were of bamboo; and that because of the availability of bamboo in the north-western region of the Northern Territory, the first didjeridu players may well have belonged to that region. Some observations on 'three very curious trumpets' made by R.Etheridge Jr. in 1893 are quoted for consideration in this context as they refer particularly to instruments of bamboo. Etheridge writes that '[the trumpets] are made from bamboo lengths, the diaphragms having been removed, probably by dropping live coals down the tubes.