iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Mm greetings, my name is Konstantin an i am a representative of a resently settled company in X country in wich im witnessing growing interest to this great instrument - didgeridoo. The problem here is that we got ALOT (puting in mind we almost got nothing) of fake didges - like local made things from local growing trees with no termits and soon, and even those fakes are really hard to find and get. The quality of such fakes is worse than i would appreciate to play and i suspect biggest part of our didj market to be just badly crafted wooden pipes..

So my point is that i want to infest my local market with greatly made real autenthic didgeridoos like you got here on your market, but i strongly opposed to the idea of being reseller, i want to work with the direct, first hand suppliers in order to get a low trade-prices. And im going to visit Australia soon to personaly get this idea done. So please, could you tell me what is the average price for a non painted (or maybe painted), first hand didgeridoo in Astralia? if i wanna buy, say 20 or 40 units, somth like that (as the idea test). I am ready to contact natives or whatever should be necessary to reach my main objectives.

Maybe you can help me and by that achieve a friend and a hot spot on the new market somwhere in the world? Im really in need of good advice) And i would be grateful to obtain any information you consider useable for me

What country are you in Konstantin?

Guan

Im from Russia Guan, from Moscow to be precise.

Hi Konstantin,

Russia eh, welcome indeed! It must be very cold now

Let me try to clarify what you are asking... you have a new company in Russia and you wish to begin to import authentic didgeridoos into your country but you do not want to be a reseller. I'm not sure how you would achieve what you intend to do... do you instead want to be a distributor, a promoter, an advocate?

If you wish to deal with didgeridoos of the highest level of cultural integrity, that is, instruments made in the 'Top End' of the Northern Territory of Australia, you would be looking at spending several hundred dollars on average per instrument. It is not easy to come up with an average figure because it really depends on what sort of quality you are after.

You might want to do more research on authenticity and quality issues, because the words "authentic didgeridoo" can mean different things to different people. And every retailer, business, craftsman, gallery and even souvenir shop will tell you they have the best quality.

If you are looking at working directly with didgeridoo craftsmen, I am happy to point you in the right direction when you come to Australia if what you intend to do is beneficial to the individuals and families concerned.

What else does your company do, what sort of business is it?

Guan

hallo Guan, thanks for ur willing to help me

Let me made everyting clear for you. Im myself is a comparatively good didj player and i have 2 pipes, the first that made of maple and second made of oak or smth. They sounds ok? i dunno coz i got nothing to comapre, the whole country is just in the dark about australia and its culture, and that didjeridoo is australian native instrument is the surprice for the ones, who occasionaly facing the local made or bamboo pipe in ethnic shop. There is more - to get urself a pipe (if u r not interested in bamboo) i had to reel myself really hard to find a master (about 2 or 4 for the whole country) that occasioanly have one or two pipes, and after all that, the price for such local didj is higher (or same) than for your australian instruments at ur place.

Well at the end u metioned right what i wanted to perform. My company is just settled and we do nothing yet, exept planning, but we have money to perform what we r planning to. So the distributing morphed with promoting is the direction we r about to move on. I got market connections here, and i want same at your country. The first hand connections

Im a good man and i wanna be a friend to the ppl i would be working with (the families concerned). For me, due to reasons i typed upper, any australian\eucaliptus\termitedly refined didj is authentic, any working didj would be sutable for me. I want to come to australia, meet you (for instance) and than go directly to this direct craftsman and, well, fill my crates with his product. I was interested in prices for a pipe that was just hatched, cleaned and maybe sand-papered a little. Im going to put these in my crates and ship to my land. I am interested in prices as low as possible (or maybe just low), and i even could do the paintings by my own ppl resourses just to made the price lower (better if the craftsman would do them), coz to ship here from australia is a really hard, risky and expensive task. In future, if this idea would get success i will change my priorities and sizes but right now my aim is to find the cheapest way to get about 30 fine didjes here.

And well due to global warming, it isn't cold here. I got winter weather almost the same as in london. And it is almost no snow, no bears and no frost

It sounds to me Konstantin that you're looking more for mass manufactured 'modern made' generic didgeridoos and not the finely chosen and crafted traditional instruments we on this forum favour.

If you want top quality instruments you're going to have to be prepared to pay a good amount of money for each item.

Kyle

Thanks for your explanations Konstantin.

My advice to you first of all is to get a feeling for your likely target market. Who is going to be your potential customer? Where do you find them? How much are they willing to pay for a quality instrument? Who are your competitors if any?

Once you have done some basic marketing research you will know better whether your proposed business has a good chance of success.

Your thinking about what is an authentic didgeridoo is rather broad, and doesn't really fit into iDIDJ Australia's idea of "Identifying and Expanding Target Markets". Because what we are concerned about here is supporting the Aboriginal craftspeople in the 'Top End' of the NT who have the didgeridoo as part of their ancestral cultural tradition. And promoting didgeridoos of the highest cultural integrity, not just any instrument made in Australia from termite-hollowed eucalyptus.

I also wouldn't recommend painting the didgeridoos yourself, that opens up a whole minefield of issues that I cannot begin to describe.

As for price, when I talk about didgeridoos my first concerns are ethics, quality, and cultural integrity; not cost. If you speak to Indigenous artists and craftsmen about wanting the cheapest, you will get the lowest quality or nothing at all. But if you reward talent appropriately, you will be repaid in kind. And that will make you a good man.

Anyway, I hope I've been helpful, anyone else here want to add something?

Guan

Hi Kyle

well as long as it is made by termites and australian natives - it is good for me) You know i cant, due to geographical position of mine, differentiate between modern made didjes or very special masterpices. And u right im not interested in expensive grate tubes - but for myself, putting in mind the main task, i would love to spend several hundreds dollars to achieve a really good top quality instrument. Coz my oak pipe has great sound too you know and the main problem that it is very hard to manufacture it by hands - and really simple using termites


Hi again Guan

Well i have concern about getting to your country, about customs, shipping and so on) thats why prices is so important for me. I respect those men that r the natural developers of such an instrument. And if i gonna tell them that i need a lowest prise - ill make em understand why) i believe we all people and we all can talk things over. I thing they would samely surprised to see russian that want their masterpices as myself to see them

Hi all

I was wondering if you could umm show me the way of getting what i wanted - not the finest but OK quality. What about those modern manufactured pipes - is there any place in the internet i could ask ? Or at least is there any place or area in your country where the natives just made tubes and do not treat it to be so expencive as the ones u got in your forum?

Hi Konstantin,

I agree entirely with Kyle and Guan on their remarks . It is understandable that you are after low budget sticks. However, by the sound of your posts, one gets the feeling that you better study your lecture on some issues such as painting the sticks etc. Instead of getting the lowest quality and not really authentic ones which are plenty on this planet, what about providing your customers with something of traditions, painted or unpainted but whichver it is, it is made by a craftsman with a cultural connection to this instrument. I believe that if you can buy sticks wholesale, you can get quality ones at reasonable prices too. But before doing this, you better do bit of research and know really what you want and want to offer your customers. I hope that you wont wind up selling mass-produced sticks,

good luck

Mahir

Hi Konstantin

I think you need to bear in mind that selling didjeridu's is not he kind of business you need to be in if you are thinking of making a living. Most people who sell authentic Yidaki and Mago are not doing it to make money but rather as a way of furthering their interests in the instrument , the culture and as a way of supporting, albeit indirectly, the aboriginal people and their way of life. Traditional instruments only occupy a very small place in the didjeridu market and are bought usually only by the hardened fans of traditional playing. The small amounts of profit made on each instrument will not pay for the admin costs of running a company thats why many re-sellers are private individuals who sell from their homes and are content to sell an instrument now and again, especially if it encourages someone to learn traditional didjeridu. Most trad fans know what they are after in an instrument and will not accept an inferior instrument so be careful what you buy. If you go the other direction and sell mass produced instruments, there are hundeds of companies doing the same and the competition will be fierce!!! Not to mention the ethics of selling instruments that are not the genuine thing, something that everyone on this forum strongly opposes. Please do your homework before embarking on this venture, study sites that you find on the internet and read as much as you can about authenticity and how all of this affects the aborigines and their culture, after all, it is the aborigine that owns the rights to make and use this instrument in their lives. There are many people out there willing to make a quick buck and you could find yourself inadvertingly selling fake instruments with none of the benefits going to the aboriginal communities. Just please consider your motives, is to to make money?? then in my opinion there are better things to sell that will give you abetter return for your money. Is it to further interest in this ancient culture and amazing musical instrument whilst at the same time putting a bit back into those communities??? then I wish you all the best and hope you succeed

Paul

Hi Konstantin,

I agree basically with all that others on the forum have offered you as advice. And it is very sound advice.
One of the big problems of the modern didgeridoo market, of modern mass produced sticks etc, is directly related to
the amount of misinformation on the true origins of the instrument. One of the important roles of this forum is to combat all of this terrible misinformation by providing a reference point on the didgeridoo in the aboriginal culture of Arnhem Land and surrounds.
It is interesting and encouraging that your first post indicated that also in your country you notice much misinformation surrounding the instrument and that you have a desire to provide high quality original instruments to the people there. It is also very encouraging that you come specifically to this forum as part of your study of what are true representative instruments.
The high level of cultural integrity of an instrument
coming from Arnhem Land from people who make these instruments as part of a continuing cultural tradition cannot be matched by maybe cheaper instruments with often dubious connection to any long standing cultural tradition. If your
goal is to provide good quality original instruments and in the process directly support the makers of these instruments, then Guan can certainly help you in this task. In this way you can build a solid channel of support and trade between your country and the aboriginal people of the northern part of australia.

I wish you all the best in any venture of this type and hope that your visit here to the ididj forum can help you in any possible way.

best regards, Martin

Hi Konstantin,

Keep in mind than you can have authentic aboriginal instruments for a relative low price. You can combine integrity with low prices for painted or "natural". If you make personnaly a treatment on instrument, like painting on it especially, it's not a fair thing it deconnects the instruments to the culture of the makers. "sacred instruments" !!!
If this idea of selling pipes is to make money, an other member say that you couldn't make very much money with this, he's got right, this kind of instrument is not a dynamic market... etc...
It was just to point out that not very good traditional instruments at a low price exist, but don't touch them after buying them

Cheers

Hi Konstantin!

Just a quick note and an opinion.
I was born in Hungary - in your neighbourhood -, now i'm living in Australia.
As an ex-instrument reseller from Cetral Europe i can say: to start a business is a very complex issue. At first let's think about yourself: why would you like to sell didges? - it was a very tricky question for me at the beginning (which issue should i follow: quantitative or qualitative?). I think it's not just about a good man's feature.
If you came to Australia you will see that you can make very good contacts with ease. When I had come to Australia at first time - 4 years ago - I had a glimpse into the (non-aboriginal) 'North Queensland didgeridoo industry'. I had been working with that guys up there and purchased very nice sticks at a very low price. After a year i have realised that i have got very good quality wooden pipes. At this time i didn't have the faintest idea what a traditional insrtument is or what the difference betwen a termite hollowed eucalypt instrument and a Yidaki or Mago - although I have thought that i'm a comparatively good didj player who familiar with the instrument.
I think you should come to Australia, see the Country and the People, do some research, think about your attitudes and goals. I belive it is the best way.

I'm sure, it is the best forum to ask help and support!

I wish you all the best!

John

hi Konstantin,

i dunno what to say that all the other fellowmembers have told u already...

but i would just point out a couple of things:

-if you really like this, i'd suggest you to jump on a plane and spend some time in australia to do your research on site. Make contacts, use the ones you've met here and try to meet both ends of the didjeridu making market: the most traditional and the non traditional mass selling ... once you see hangars full with thousands of unpainted, filipino-chain made didjeridus that will be sold around australia to the world as authentic aboriginal didjeridus, re-ask yourself the arguments exposed by you in your comments here.

-no one expects you to be the mother theresa of calcutta, i myself have been importing didjeridus in spain for many years, but forget about making the business of your life with it. You won't get further than having your own personal collection and a few euros/dollars for your next travel to australia. But if you keep the right and possitive stand, you'll perhaps be collaborating to introduce in your country the best instruments as possible regarding not only quality but cultural integrity, educating your market and your local scene, that on your side, but on the australian side, you'll also be giving a hand to cultural centres in remote communities to carry on their activity, giving reasons to families to keep on the traditions alive, traditions that help them keep clear a sense of identity against an invasion of a foreign culture that is distracting the youth, leading to culture extinction, and bla, bla, bla, bla... many reasons, please give a closer eye to the threads in the forum to know more about them...

-i don't know what are the trading difficulties for someone living in Moscow when compared with someone else elsewhere in the world, but being russian doesn't make u any different to the eyes of aboriginal people, i'd say, unless they relate you with Ivan Drago at Rocky IV or someone of such fame. Think about what Guan said: what matters here is to value the work of the people, because there's always an exchange, specially with them. If you don't value it, you won't be valued and the quality of what you'll get will reflect that reciprocity...

good luck!
M