iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

I saw reference to "smoking" an instrument. It may have been a video in which a newly made instrument (don't remember if it was yidaki or mago) was passed over a smoldering fire. It seemed to have a ceremonial context though I suppose it could have been a way to remove stubborn insects....

For many native peoples in the part of the world we use various plants on hot coals. Cedar, sweetgrass, sage, tobacco and copal are a few. Each of these has certain properties and "responsibilities" when used in ceremony. Cedar for example is used to "change" the energy of an object, space or person etc...

I am wondering if indigenous peoples in the Northern Territory use a similar way with their instruments? What ever the reference that I saw it immediately was familiar and I smiled knowing that this Way was happening...

In my flute making, both at the begining and the end of the process, I use cedar then sweetgrass. When new instruments come into my home I do the same. Interestingly with the new Djalu I was so eager to play it and make a relationship to it that I neglected this....

I do realize that this maybe too sensitive a subject to discuss....

I have read such a thing about "smoking" sticks in ceremonies.
Cannot tell you much more concerning the spiritual meaning, but on a pragmatical level I think it is more to dry up the freshly cut trunk rather than to remove the remaining termites.
Termites fear daylight, and I think there is not very much to do to remove them once the trunk has been cut (and extremities have been opened letting daylight pass through). Just passing a branch to remove their crap, but the bugs should move somewhere else pretty quickly to dig themselves in the ground.

Gula Lalara smokes an instrument on Bickerton Island (associated with Groote Eylandt) when it was completed which, as I understand it, was a bringing of all the local spirits/stories together with the instrument. This is detailed in David Turner's book Afterlife before Genesis: An Introduction : Accessing the
Eternal through Australian Aboriginal Music (there is a photo of Gula playing the stick just after smoking it in the fire next to him - I tried to attach the photo but the forum is giving me grief) and on the accompanying CD where Gula calls (sings) the spirits to the stick whilst slapping the mouthpiece end as it's held over the smoke.

Interesting stuff!

Kyle