iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Here's a recent find, a wonderful old Port Keats instrument with a large flare and very fine artwork in ochre. This is a marluk that was made for use rather than for the art market. Acoustics are second to none. No collection year came with this instrument but it is safe to say it is pre-1980s (1960s-70s most probably, not likely to be earlier than this).

Pics of mouthpiece and bell are roughly proportional in size.

Damn Guan, I've had my eye on this one since I found it in 2004! I didn't know you'd snapped it up.

I thought this was from the Maningrida region due to the artwork Guan. Why do you think it's a Port Keats stick?

Hi Kyle,

The reason I think it is Port Keats is because of the lack of cross-hatching. Also, the figurative design looks to me to resemble the work of leading Port Keats artists from the 1960s-70s period.

Guan

I understand your reasoning Guan, but the figures on this stick remind me very much of work from Western / North Central Arnhem Land. I had a bark painting with a similarly executed snake and although it included a rarrk background I feel the imagery on this stick has more in common with this than the much more realistic depictions of the Port Keats area. I attach below an image of one of Paddy Fordham's paintings which also is stylistically similar (I can't attach a photo of the bark I've got as the attachment facility seems to be disabled).

Interestingly, there is a picture of Blanasi playing an instrument with similar decoration sans rarrk in the Australian Aboriginal Music book edited by Jennifer Isaacs!

Attributing work like this is, as you know, not an exact science, but I do enjoy discussing the various options. Let me know what you think.

Hey Kyle,

Yup, I agree attributing works it isn't an exact science. I'd like to see a pic of the bark painting in question though when the attachment facility works again here on the Forum... I'll give it a shot now and see if it is ok now.

The first pic shows the mago in question side-by-side with a documented instrument with full provenance ex. Fairweather Collection.

I'm looking at some documentation I have for the stick pictured at the top and a rough summary of it is as follows: Fairweather ran the Daly River Hotel from the early 1960s onwards. Along with her husband Tommy Skewes, who was manager of Litchfield Downs cattle station, the couple began their association with Indigenous Mulakmulak (Ngolokwangga) and Moil (Maringar) people of the Daly River and Port Keats areas from the early 1950s.

I think it is fair to say that there is a striking resemblance between the two instruments. The colour scheme, the dotting, the band patterning... you can see in the top instrument that the neck and mouthpiece were originally black like the bottom instrument but due to handling and usage the black has come off to reveal the red beneath. It might be a long shot to say that the same hand made and painted these 2 instruments, but I'm pretty certain that they came from the same area.

The second pic shows 2 Paddy Fordham instruments with the instrument in question below them. I don't see much of a resemblance there.

With regards to the mago pictured in the Australian Aboriginal Music book edited by Jennifer Isaacs, it is a curious stick indeed. I had a similar instrument which I sold but here is an old photo of it shown as the 3rd pic below. Again, not much of a resemblance there.

I'm keen to see your bark painting though like I said, it is always interesting to learn something new.

Guan

That Port Keats stick is a striking example and a good comparable. It's the use of dots within the black outline of the fish which reminds me of work from Western / North Central Arnhem Land.

I didn't think the stick in question was made by Paddy Fordham - I only used that work as an example of the figurative approach adopted by WAL/NCAL artists. It's the depiction of the snake on fish on the stick that inform me most, as they look far more stylized than most Port Keats area depictions.

I must say that your old Port Keats stick does make one feel that they could've been painted by the same hand, or at least by a fellow clansman.

Kyle

I think I know what you mean, I've seen barks like that myself. I guess it comes back to the overall design and composition, down to the sorts of colours used and other nuances.

When I first saw this mago some years ago, my first reaction was Port Keats though I did not have the Fairweather instrument at the time and therefore could not do a comparison. Now that I have the Fairweather instrument from Port Keats/Daly River, the resemblance is striking and the match strong enough to warrant a positive attribution I reckon.



Yeah, I know, I just wanted to show off my Paddy Fordham sticks

I've got two sticks without figurative designs, but the colour scheme (and dotting, abstract designs) look strikingly similar if not identical to the palette that Paddy used.

By the way, I remember you said something about Paddy having painted the way he does (with no cross-hatching) because he was not initiated. I've read that myself somewhere, but I wonder if it is true and what else could be said about that. I'd like to ask Bininy/Yolngu who know him. It is an interesting issue because as far as I know, all men are initiated; ie. they are circumcised and have their dhapi'/djapi when they are boys.

Even David Gulpilil son, Jida, who grew up down south with his Koori mother's people in Victoria, went through his dhapi' in Arnhem Land albeit when he was a grown man. It would have been a painful experience at that age. It wasn't a first for that age either... elders have told me that during WW2 many dhapi' ceremonies were postponed because of the war, with the circumcision taking place years later when things settled down a bit in northern Australia and the Japanese threat well and truly over.

I wonder what year Paddy was born?



I reckon so. By the way, I acquired all the didgeridoos from the Fairweather Collection (some 8 or 9 sticks). They're a nice bunch of instruments and their decoration quite varied too. It seems the more voluminous ones with a pronounced flare were used ceremonially, as evidenced by wear and tear. The ones that were straight up-and-down cylindrical looked like they had not been touched, so their artwork is in almost perfect condition!

Guan

It's my understanding that it might not just have been an issue with initiation as far as Paddy's art is concerned, but a lack of a certain age-grading issue coupled with some sort of law being broken by Paddy! Perhaps it was this act which informed his aesthetic. I'd be interested in hearing what you can find out from his clansmen.

This age-grading thing is a funny beast... sure, it is mentioned many times in different literature. But I'm not so sure if it has relevance in Arnhem Land or even if it exists at all. Other than dhapi'/djapi, there's clan-based ceremonies which are not age-grading. There are also cults as Ian Keen puts it. I know of Gunabibi, Yabudurruwa, Mandiyala (although this also functions as a circumcision ritual), Djungguwan, and Ngulmarrk (no longer practiced but some Yolngu remember it). None of these are 'age-grading' if I understand the term correctly. There are levels of seniority of course that is acquired through age, knowledge, competence etc.

Yeah, who knows!?!

Perhaps all of this is a fabricated story used to authenticate Paddy's own style? Further investigation is required and unfortunately we can't ask Paddy himself any longer.