iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Saving the best to last... this is Nelson Dhapan Yunupingu, yidaki genius and amongst the most highly-skilled yidaki players in Arnhem Land. I'd been hanging out for the opportunity to record Dhapan for many months now, and the wish has finally come true! I respect Dhapan for his singular dedication to yidaki. He is a non-smoker with a powerful set of lungs, a very physical player with vitality and enormous life force.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JySMaonYhLw[/youtube]

Guan

Hi there

Wow ! very powerfull and precise.

GGW

Would anyone here like to do some research? I'm thinking about Dhapan's father, Harry Landhuni, and where we might be able to get hold of recordings of him playing yidaki. Douglas was talking about CDs and DVDs of Landhuni, but I doubt DVDs were around when Landhuni was alive... he passed away in 1994 according to Dhapan. No DVDs then. Both Douglas and Dhapan also talked about "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" the television series, which was produced in the late 1960s. I did some very quick research and thought I came up with the name "Harry Carpenter" as a cast member in Skippy... whether this is a whitefella or Landhuni's European name for television purposes, I do not know.

It seems strange that a generation of highly skilled yidaki players including the likes of Burrngupurrngu, Landhuni et. al. who must have been recorded at some stage, are not so prominent on recordings - or at least, are no so easily found, as the generation before them and the generation after.

Guan

I'll see what I can find on my own, although I don't have access to JSTOR and the like. Time to knock the dust off and polish up on my research skills

Guan I am interested -

With all these yidaki players coming into the public eye, where will that leave more wellknown players such as Djalu and (when he was alive) Mr Mununggurr? Djalu is seen as the godfather of yidaki from what I can see, but you and youtube combined, are putting other styles of play into the public eye, and I'd be interested to hear how they see themselves.


Dan

Good question Dan. I don't know to be honest, but every yidaki/mago player I've showcased on YouTube can hold their heads high. Each is an accomplished player in his own right, and there is always room for new talent!

Guan

Thanks Jason, you da man!

I've only looked on the internet, and fleetingly at that. The other useful resource is a compilation that Alice Moyle put together in 1966. It brings together every known sound recording to the year 1965 and is entitled "A Handlist of Field Collections of Recorded Music in Australia and Torres Strait". It goes all the way back to the earliest recordings which were done on wax cylinders, quite a departure from the DAT and hard-drive recorders at 44.1 kHz 16 bit quality we have these days! I haven't searched thru this yet, but will do so when I get some free time.

I'm not sure how useful JSTOR would be in this case. Its usefulness would be dependent on Harry appearing in the academic literature.

The other lead I would suggest is the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra.

Anyway, let's see what we can come up with collectively

Guan

I agree with you there mate! Each and every one you have had on there has been the mutt's nutts (a pommie idiom which translates to 'top notch'), the cat's pajamas, the bee's knees

etc


Loving it Guan! Keep it up!

Awesome man!!!!

Is this guy the same as Dhapa? He makes didjeridoos too right?

Shaun

Dhapan again after a while not seeing him, he's still as good as ever!



Guan