iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Micky Yalbarr is a Mawng (alternate spelling Maung) man from Warruwi, Goulburn Island. Goulburn Island contains a special site called Djunggirriny, which is also the name of a sacred yidaki that the Galpu people have rights to.

Yalbarr is a mago man, and has recently been recorded by Linda Barwick as part of a research initiative funded by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project. Whilst Darryl Digarrnga was artist-in-residence at iDIDJ Australia, he commented on various "mago men" of Western Arnhem Land and Yalbarr's name came up.

I was fortunate to meet Yalbarr in 1996, not aware at the time that he was a mago master, but thrilled by his energetic and whimsical dance style during a Mamurrung ceremony I attended and recorded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3fBryOEmXw

Yalbarr is not a prolific mago maker, and there is no outlet for his instruments on Goulburn Island unfortunately.

Interesting to hear of the Western Arnhem Land Song Project. I look forward to hearing the recordings in due course.

Hi Kyle,

I'm unsure whether there will be any commercial recordings at the end of it. The access entry says "Restricted to named groups" but there will be material deposited at AIATSIS, so my assumption is that this is purely a research and community-focussed project. As I understand it, there have been 80 plus song items recorded already at Goulburn. I believe Barwick used the Nagra V recording unit... wish I had toys like that to play with!

Hey Guan,

We'll live in hope then!

Sounds like an exciting project, regardless of whether or not any commercial recordings come about as a result.

You can always visit AIATSIS and do research in their archives. They're got a tremendous amount of material there in their reference library... published works, unpublished manuscripts, AV material, even an artifact collection. This is the largest repository of information anywhere in the world on Australian Indigenous studies.

If you are a bona fide researcher you can have access to all that. You could try a Fulbright scholarship?

Honestly, that's hard to say-- I've been out of academia for a couple years now and don't know what I could contribute.

Here is a link on their site: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/aboriginal_st ... ett_and_cd
It helps when your wife works in a city library.

I recently had a meeting with Linda Barwick, Allan Marret and others about a joint initiative with a handful of institutions and Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, and one thing I'm hoping it's okay for me to share is that they have secured a grant that includes 10 CDs of traditional music to be released over the next 3 years. I believe all of this would be Top End music, but I'm not sure about that. I'm sure existing recordings or at least exisiting relationships like this will make their way into the series. It may of course include music from our neck of the woods.

Hey Jason,
It is possible to apply for a Fulbright as an "at-large" applicant, not associated with a university. I had been away from academia for almost 7 years when I got mine. You just have to come up with a good idea and a very convincing proposal!
Randin