Values
By seeking out a Heartland Didgeridoo
You become part of a collective endeavour to respect and learn from first nations culture, to bridge and heal the rifts amongst all, and to celebrate the rich heritage of this ancient instrument as it moves us in a modern world. When we lay a foundation of respect that promotes understanding, healing, and shared appreciation, the new dreaming has space to take root in our diverse and complex world.
Respect, inclusivity and a new dreaming!
Heartland Didgeridoos grows out of respect and care for culture and land.
Gratitude and respect to top end mobs including Yolngu mob, who perhaps two or more thousands of years ago, discovered the sound and song that the abundant hollow logs locally could offer. Thank you for sharing this instrument with other mobs around Oz, and thank you for so generously encouraging others from around Oz and around the world, to find their way to sing and love the earth and all life, through the grounding drone and rhythm of the didg.
Yidaki, Magu, yigi yigi, are original names for didgeridoos in different areas. They grew from land, they came from a place. They are different tree types that played differently based on the trees shape, the areas they were from and the people that lived there. They were played for fun, in ceremony, for healing. In some areas woman made them too and in rare cases played them as well, even though men predominantly were and are the ones seen to be the players, especially via ceremonies. Didgeridoos held and hold rhythm and are a back drop to song and story, the outplaying of meaning in the web of life. They are intrinsically part of culture, culture that is forever evolving and different because of so many reasons. They are part of what has been, as much as they are part of the now that creates our tomorrow. They are a way ‘we sing love songs to the land’, as a well known Yolngu Yunupingu man once said. Today we are many people from many lands, that make up Australia. First nations mob with ancestry of here of thousands of years, and so many other nations with ancestry elsewhere but now born here. Together we try to find a new way, that respects what has been and where we find ourselves.
Heartland is a slice of the modern tapestry of indigenous and non indigenous involvement, in uncovering a collective dreaming moving forward. We are all charged with acknowledging what has been, the roots of culture, land and language, and the clash and damage of colonisation. What can be grown out of this place, what can we do together, for it all, and despite it all. We can’t ignore what has been. It has to be acknowledged, felt, grieved over, and when enough of us are feeling met together, a new way can be care- fully uncovered.
Heartland Didgeridoos is sad about the recent efforts with the referendum and “The Uluru Statement of the Heart”, so divided we ended up being. The effort made was genuine and good, but not enough time was given, not enough felt, heard, or was brought into understanding, and so polarity and division won.
Maybe it is time to look more to the why, and how we do what we do, as well as the who, what, where and when. Perhaps we are more likely to stay on a good track. The why and the how is the spirit and the who, what, where, and when are more about the data and results. Another way to put it is to place the journey as more important than the destination. The ‘why’ is our purpose and loving the land and each other, could be our number one. The ‘How’ is by being inclusive, building on connection, showing care and extending hands of unity, and finding our common dreaming. The what, is still important and the who as well, when disadvantage and advantage is so out of balance, but until we refine the basic intention and the basic how we go about things, we will continue to see good efforts come to nought.
Heartland is one genuine attempt to come back to what we do have choice over, and what can make a difference most easily. Elders over several of decades of Heartland making didgeridoos, Yolngu & Gambaynngirr, have respected the Heart in Heartland Didgeridoos. This encouragement and invitation has looked beyond appearances, into the heart of motivation and purpose, respect and care. This has seen us drawn into ceremony, into teaching indigenous youth in schools, in playing in an aboriginal dance troupe, and being leaders in the crafting of instruments made with care and story, that relates to the complexity of a 2020’s world, trying to respectfully and inclusively make sense of itself. Heartland Didgeridoos in its 4th decade now, even more looks to how to honour what has been, whilst dreaming into what is asking to come into being, finding ways to give forward and support what is alive.
Welcome to the journey of playing didgeridoo if you are new and blessings too, if you have played for some time. To play this instrument offers so much, it is so generous, and it also asks something of us as well. For me it is to be in some way a Voice for the earth, for first nation mobs dealing with disadvantage, and to walk our path and be our truth. Wishing you well dear brothers and sisters. <3
Ways Heartland expresses these values
- Where we can, we support indigenous youth, tree planting in arid parts of the country and local Gambaynngirr Language classes.
- We mentor wherever possible indigenous youth, or young adults who wish to learn the skill of crafting didgeridoos and help them discover their art.
- We work with local schools and indigenous youth, who would like to make their own didgeridoos.
- We encourage people interested in didgeridoos to understand the different viewpoints and reasonings re gender and didg, and the different meanings given to didg in different areas by different mobs, based on whether it had been part of their culture, or adopted or traded in.
- Some didgeridoos are made fully by one person, others may be made by one person but artworked by another. We encourage collaborations and involve indigenous and non indigenous makers and artisans based on genuine love of the work being created.
- With each didgeridoo we value listening to the sound and looking to the aesthetics to guide us. We value time and care being taken, that results in fine crafting and meaningful artistic expression.
- We value the masculine expression of stepping up and standing up for what we believe in and being willing to express our individuality and truth as we experience it.
- We value the feminine expression of feeling into, instinct and care that leads to celebrating differences, connection and harmony.