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Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:28 am Post subject: Presenting Nathan Biyalnga Bidinggal
Okay, maybe it's not in the spirit of the other yidaki player posts on here, but he's a young Yolngu man I've just had the pleasure of working with for three weeks in a film production workshop and hope to continue on with. Biyalnga's a grandson of the great Mowarra Ganambarr, one of the Northern Territory Special Reconnaisance Unit who served as spotters in Arnhem Land in World War II, and a great leader of the Datiwuy clan who passed away a couple years ago at Matamata.
The yidaki player, Dhamarrarr Mununggurr, is a 'son' of Milkayngu, his brother's son by our reckoning. I'll admit he was better as a cameraman than as a yidaki player! He did about a third of the shots in the clip, along with me and one of the girls in the class, Wunyburra Wunungmurra. Dhama's older brother Ngalkanbuy actually is a great player.
Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 912 Location: Australia
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:45 pm Post subject:
Nice! I hope Nathan gets somewhere with this, he's obviously very talented. One thing with his name... is there a typo or should the surname be Bidingal? Also, if I had to critique the lyrics, the part about "U wanna be Yolngu, act like a Yolngu" kinda sounds strange. But otherwise, full credit to him and all the crew involved!
is there a typo or should the surname be Bidingal?
Oh, that's very confusing without tail-ns! By your spelling do you mean a tail-n or a separate n and g? I'd have to admit I'd never really thought about that name as we don't normally have many of them around. The spelling on there was however provided by folks from the school. Raymattja and Yolngu teachers have seen it several times including a critical viewing at the debut. Actually, the originally spelling typed by one of the students had a retroflex n instead of a d, and I was very surprised, repeated it back and was told it was right. Then when Raymattja saw it, she told us to change it to the d. If you think it's different though, clarify and I'll check it out one more time. It wouldn't be the first time there was an institutionalised misspelling!
ididjaustralia wrote:
if I had to critique the lyrics, the part about "U wanna be Yolngu, act like a Yolngu" kinda sounds strange.
What do you mean by 'sounds strange'? Just the sound of it or the concept behind it? Because there's an interesting discussion there.
On one hand, the whole thing bothers me. It doesn't escape my attention that he's singing 'act like a Yolngu' while he's acting like an African-American. Yothu Yindi's got some lines like that that have always bothered me as well. I'd rather see Yolngu get their hands on modern technology and use it the YOLNGU WAY, whatever that is, and come up with something different with film and music that no one else has thought of. I take some comfort in the words of our film trainers, one of whom is Inuit and grew up in the northernmost point of the USA, the other who grew up in a desert Aboriginal community, and both of whom have been training indigenous people in communities for a while now. They say that what's happening here is typical (except for our unique facility). It starts out with films of hunting, interviews with elders, documents on daily life, etc. Next is imitations of what they've seen done in the media - music videos, soap operas - one desert community even did their own 'Charlie's Angels'. Once they get through that, have learned the vocabulary of film a bit and are comfortable with it, then they start to think more critically and creatively and come up with something new. I was of course desperately hoping for brilliant departures from convention starting from a place of innocence right from the get go, but there's been way to much media coming into Arnhem Land for way too long already.
So for now, it's slow steps. Really it's just practice now and then maybe in a few years we'll know what it means to 'act like a Yolngu' in a music video.
OH - all that being said, to be fair, Biyalnga's original vision had the video cutting to the beach with a bunch of kids painted up doing manikay and bunggul on the beach for that whole last bit starting with that line. Still mixed up with hip hop dancing, but at least introducing more of a Yolngu element starting at that point. We simply couldn't get that shoot together in the time of the workshop while the trainers were here, which happened to correspond to the end of the school term.
Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 912 Location: Australia
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:
Hey Randy,
I was thinking Birdingal in the old orthography, instead of Birdin.gal. Nathan is Ritharrngu clan right, Bulany skin? I know some of the Ritharrngu mob and they use Bidingal surname, with tail-n.
With the "U wanna be Yolngu, act like a Yolngu" bit, it was the concept rather than the sound of it. Thanks for your background info, 'tis really interesting! I guess with hip hop, to be taken seriously it has gotta be kept real, none of this imitation stuff. Australian hip hop in general has suffered this same problem for years, but is starting to come into its own now and getting some attention. But otherwise, good on Nathan and all the crew, can't wait to see more!
Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Barcelona, Spain
Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:58 pm Post subject:
hello Randin and Guan!
just wanted to mention something I found quite curious and coincident when you mentioned this particular last name and its correct spelling...
i don't know Nathan but i know other ritharrngu people with the same last name... and coincidentally, i know of one who wasn't very sure of how to spell correctly his last name, the one in question here, when signing an etching made by him...
the signature thing seemed to be a tough mission for some young artists in Beswick, i remember the responsibles of the art center somehow chasing a few of them to "finish the job" writing their signature and they sneaking away from it... they didn't like it much, i reckon because most of them couldn't write...
the pictures attached are of two etchings of the same content, but with different numbers... i bought one, plus others by Wayne's cousins (Ashley mob Guan, you know them all, Roy's wild sons!!!) at Ghunmarn Arts Centre in Beswick, and I just realised that one of the pictures, from an etching at the centre (1/30) has the name written differently than the one i have (4/30)... the first one, 1/30, was probably the first one he signed, Bdnadl, obviusly wrong, and i pressume someone else told him to write it correctly in the other etchings... so number 4/30 was Bidindal... which i would then think that it was the correct spelling... but no! because the last name written in the etching/artist file sent to me by the centre is Bidingal... but i doubt this means this is the right way of spelling it, since the centre is very new and i doubt they're aware of proper spelling of words, besides probably not having the yolngu fonts installed, etc... so i actually have no clue of what the proper spelling is... i observe now that at the catalogue of the art i'm selling i wrote Bidindal, probably because i trusted more the warmth of the signature than the coldness of the file, he, he...
Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 912 Location: Australia
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:23 am Post subject:
Interesting story there Marcos lol! If Nathan is Ritharrngu, the surname should be "Bidingal" with a tail-n. Or in the old orthography when we only had typewriters and no computer fonts, "Birdingal". Both these are acceptable ways of spelling the name. "Birdin.gal" is incorrect as "ng" is a tail-n. "Bidinggal" is wrong too, as is "Birdinggal". Hope this isn't confusing...
Joined: 21 Nov 2007 Posts: 24 Location: Barcelona, Spain
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:14 pm Post subject:
got it,
so it's Bidingal... ng being a tail-n... and retroflexed d... i'll correct the catalogue entry whenever i do a new print... a bit difficult/expensive now... once i do it, it will look a bit confusing to see the surname written in the catalogue differently than in the artwork itself... but here i remember of Paddy Fordham's signature... Never understood why he signed like that...
thanx for the info!
Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 912 Location: Australia
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:43 pm Post subject:
No worries mate, sorry if it is extra bother for you to change the spelling. Sometimes it doesn't really matter how a name is spelt especially once a name has become set in our minds and we are used to seeing it spelt a certain way. But since we have the chance to do things right, it is better to try to get names correct as often as possible now that there is a conventional way of spelling using the orthography devised by linguists. I think artists and Aboriginal people in general also appreciate it when their names are pronounced correctly. So many times I've listened in on Yolngu giggling amongst themselves or berating Balanda for saying names and words wrong.
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