iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

[Ed Drury]

This one I heard recently just sounds wrong on the surface. I heard it shortly after the didgefest here in Oregon. It goes something like this:

Quote:

"The Yolngu have to make many yidaki of lesser quality in order to get only a small percentage of suitable quality. In contrast, Chad Butler can make a perfect one everytime. Because of this supposed shortage of acceptible yidaki in Australia, Chad has been exporting his sticks to Australia so that the Yolngu children can have suitable instrument to learn on."

I think this may have resulted in a misunderstanding of something over heard and re-told at the gathering. I guess it's quite possible that Chad has exported some sticks to Australia. It would be understandable for any didjeridu maker to feel proud that their instruments would sell there. But I somehow doubt there is a shortage of quality instruments to the degree that children there of any Aboriginal heritage would be disinclined to learn to play becuase of poor instrument quality. And I rather think that the motives for such sales would be more business oriented than any other reason.

It also makes me wonder aloud, "should instruments made on foreign shores be imported to Australia?" There is a need to import didjeridus to Australia? Do Aboriginal people need competition in didjeridu sales on in their own country?

Ed

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[ididjaustralia]

This is very strange indeed and the first time I've heard it. Whilst some areas in Arnhem Land are heavily harvested (Dhalinybuy outstation for example, and some places closer to town), I don't think there is a need among Yolngu children for imported didgeridoos. Actually, I'm sure there isn't a need for it.

I haven't seen any of Chad's instruments in Arnhem Land or in Australia. I don't think Chad is the sort of character who would propagate these sorts of stories so probably just a case of misunderstanding.

Is there a way to trace the rumor trail Ed? To get to the source of this rumour?

Guan

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[Peter Lister]

Of course i've not spent the amount of time you have in Arnhem Land Guan but I've only ever seen small children playing a couple of times and usually on a piece of plastic tubing - like black poly used for irrigation. Certainly in Ramingining children were only interested in yirdaki when something ceremonial was happening.

Peter L.

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Bita

[kdidj]

I think the Didgeridoo Breath guys in Perth may have purchased a few instruments from Chad for resale, but like Guan, I don't feel that Chad would be propagating such misinformation.

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[ididjaustralia]

Maybe Chad would like to clear this up himself, as this sort of rumour does no-one any good. If I was in his shoes I'd be falling over myself to extinguish the rumour. Does anyone here have direct contact to Chad?

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[flyangler18]

Quote:

Does anyone here have direct contact to Chad?

I'll try to get in touch with him. He certainly would like to know how this rumor first began circulating attached to his name.

J

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[chad butler]

hi guys! chad butler here for my very first time. I'm glad you've all discovered my program to extract lunch money (tons of it) from Yolngu children in Fremantle. Ha! I've got no idea where the kid thing came in as it has absoloutly no bearing on truth. The real deal is that Tony from Didgeridoobreath has been visiting the American didge fests for years and has been impressed with the consistant quality of many split and hollow style didgecrafters instruments and he decided to introduce this style of instrument into his lineup of quality sticks. That's all there is to it, a business decision to represent a good product. I'm not the first western crafter to sell sticks to OZ. The shipping costs and import tariffs will certainly keep the volume of trade low so I don't fear that any Australian didgecrafters will be put out of work because of invading sticks. This style of didgecrafting produces sticks with accoustical and playing response characteristics that are recognizably different from traditional eucalyptus didges and deserve to be recognized in a catagory of their own, similar to the recognition that agave didgeridoos are in fact didgeridoos but have their own particular characteristics that also set them into a seperate catagory. Some of these characteristics may be attractive to some and not at all interesting to others, it's just a growing market with expanding possibilities that are fun to explore.

[itsadidj]

Excellent start everybody! We're one for one! BRING ON THE RUMORS!... ...and thanks Chad!

Peace,

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Chris

[flyangler18]

It's good to hear from you, Chad. Hope all is well in Oregon for you and the family.

Jason

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[ididjaustralia]

Good this is all cleared up. Ed, would you let your woman friend know about this so she will stop with the story?

Chad, in Perth they don't call themselves Yolngu but Noongar (sometimes spelt Nyungar). Yolngu is a very specific term used only in north-east Arnhem Land.

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[chad butler]

in defense of the person who passed this information to Ed, Tony (of Didgeridoobreath) did about the process he usually goes through when purchasing sticks. He said something to the effect of placing an order for 50 didges which he then goes through when they arrive to find that out of the 50 maybe ten to fifteen are pretty good and that maybe five are really awesome. Those five would go on his website, the other ten good ones would go on his shops floor displays and the others become souvenirs. This is what I got out of what he said and definately not intended to be a direct quote to hold Tony (or me) responsible to. I think that the part of the quote referring to the quality harkens back to this statement, and also the weirdness about me making perfect ones everytime. What should be understood is that when shipping him sticks I know my reputation and future business prospects are on the line so I'm going to do my best to ONLY send him ones that I think are really good and so from a business standpoint to only have to pay for five to get five is probably better than paying for fifty to get five ya want. I still have no idea where the kid part comes in, or that it's some philanthopic mission.

And to Guan, I know that Yolngu are northern region, and I guess I was assuming that everybody would know that to understand that I was pointing out the hypocracy of that whole statement because I'm not even sending my sticks to a part of OZ. where Yolngu people live. So if I were trying to save some culture I'd be missing my mark by thousands of kilometers.

[Ed Drury]

Excellent result. Glad I posted the story. My efforts to investigate these kind of things alone have always failed in the past to get to the source of what in this case, I think can easily be understandable in the re-telling of things over heard.

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[Darth Ak-sar-ben]

Excellent! Kind of like being in Detroit area and importing cars from Japan or Korea such as KIA......wait!! We alredy have imports from Japan and Korean cars
Or kind of like being in the middle of Napa Valley California and importing wine from Australia!....like Yellow Tail??

After looking at things the other day at a Wal Mart store and a True Value store, I can't help but ponder... "God help us if we ever break trade ties with China!"

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Cheers!
Vern

"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

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