Special promotion! Free Memawuy yirdaki! Didgeridoo!

I was walking around the city the other day and chanced upon a souvenir shop. Curious about what didgeridoos they might have available, I walked in and examined their range of instruments... I wasn't surprised to see 60 cm didgeridoos in there, small enough to fit into the luggage of backpackers and tourists coming to Australia... and there have been plenty of visitors recently with the Grand Prix and World Swimming Championships being held in Melbourne. What I was surprised to find was that these didgeridoos were labelled as having been painted by Aboriginal people. And herein lies the question... who exactly were these Aboriginal artists? There was no information about them anywhere on the label. No name, no portrait picture, no tribal or language affiliations. I had serious problems accepting that an Aboriginal person had painted this tourist souvenir that was being sold as a didgeridoo. (Believe me, the art was awful if you could call it art!). But then again, it could have been someone who has Indigenous ancestry but lives in a suburban context with a mainstream lifestyle... a job, a car, a mortage... He or she might have blue eyes, blonde hair, pale or olive skin, and also claim Scottish heritage. Being an Indigenous Australian can mean a lot of different things to different people. And retailers and manufacturers have been more than happy to exploit this for their own commercial benefit. So, coming back to this special promotion... iDIDJ Australia would like to give away another free yirdaki for an educational cause. The cause is simple, which is about public education, research and awareness-raising. What about? About the didgeridoo of course! And issues to do with authenticity and cultural integrity. So, what do you have to do to win this wonderful E yirdaki made by Memawuy? Simply post comments here and in a special discussion group I have set up. Your comments should deal with the following questions: 1) Does a didgeridoo that was made and/or painted by any Australian Indigenous person qualify as authentic? 2) Where does the didgeridoo really come from - which part of Australia if any? Do the Indigenous people of that area have sole custodial and/or intellectual property rights over the didgeridoo compared to Indigenous Australians from other parts of Australia? Why? Why not? Should they enjoy economic benefits from the didgeridoo at the exclusion of other Indigenous Australians? You can post as many comments as you like. There are no right or wrong answers. The aim here is to open the discussion to all and to share what we know about the didgeridoo, as well as to stimulate debate, generate original research, and get people to read the existing literature... remember, not everything can be found on the internet! In fact, and rather unfortunately for many consumers, the web has been a convenient and effective way that retailers have been spreading untruths, distorted facts, and little white lies about the didgeridoo. All for the pursuit of the dollar. That's why iDIDJ Australia is giving away this yirdaki for free! I'm not going to say that this instrument is worth AUD$1500 or AUD$5000 or anything ridiculous like that, because it isn't. It did cost me several hundred dollars to purchase it in Arnhem Land, and if I made the trip solely to hand-pick this yirdaki, then factoring in all the related costs and expenses would add up to quite an amount many many times the price I paid for the instrument. But I can't even claim to have done that, because on my trip to Arnhem Land, I didn't buy just this yirdaki but hand-picked quite a few others. Oh... whilst the yirdaki is free, the winner shall agree to pay for the cost of freight :-) This isn't really a competition so to talk about a winner isn't entirely correct. Call it a reward for your time, your effort, your critical thinking. I will decide who deserves this beaut Memawuy yirdaki based on comments here and in the special discussion forum I have set up specifically for this. The discussion forum can be found here: http://forum.ididj.com.au The old discussion forum which became too difficult to use because of the number of comments submitted is here: http://www.youtube.com/group/didgeauthenticity This special promotion will run for 1 month, and will end at midnight on the 20th of April 2007 (Australian Eastern Standard Time). 'Winner' will be announced here and in the discussion group. More information about this Memawuy yirdaki can be found here: http://www.ididj.com.au/store/fine_didjeridus.html Remember, for future promotions and to be in the running to win great prizes and special discounts, you must be registered with YouTube, you must SUBSCRIBE to the ididjaustralia channel on YouTube and we must add you to our list of FRIENDS. Simple! Whenever we BROADCAST A MESSAGE through one of our BULLETINS you will automatically receive an email from YouTube informing you of the BULLETIN.

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