Yidaki: Didjeridu and the Sound of Australia: 3 March to 16 July 2017

The South Australian Museum in Adelaide and the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia are holding an exhibition on the music of the didjeridu (didjeridoo) from 3 March to 16 July 2017 called Yidaki.

Yidaki, commonly known as the didjeridu – or didgeridoo – is the iconic sound of Australia. The didjeridu is a long cylindrical hollow wooden wind instrument. It can be one to three metres long (3-10 feet). Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower the pitch. Flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length.

This is the first exhibition of the musical instrument and its sound. It has a distinct mesmerising sound and it echoes in the exhibtion hall – accompanied by several didjeridu on display.

Throughout the exhibition the voice of Djalu Gurruwiwi informs attendees of the didjeridu with oral historical facts – their specific cultural and musical origins, and how it can have meaning for all people. Gurruwiwi said, ‘The sound of the yidaki calls everyone together in unity.’ They are not just musical instruments, but also social instruments, instruments of healing, and of spiritual life.

The Yolngu people of north east Arnhem Land are the custodians and practitioners of the cultural traditions of the yidaki. The interesting fact is that termites are at the heart of this instrument. The didjeridu is crafted from the stringy bark tree in Arnhem Land where termites enrich the soil and balance the ecosystem. Termites, in turn, eat through the wooden heart of the trees to create the hollow that marks it as a good candidate for the tree to become a yidaki.

This is an immersive exhibition of sound, visuals, videos, and storyboards.

www.samyidaki.com.au

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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