women & didg

[MiA]

Je vous transmets un article rédigé par Melina Shirvanian, une femme qui a ouvert un shop en australie et qui, aux vues de ce que l'on peut entendre sur les femmes et le didg, en a rédigé un article que voici...


Bon, je suis désolée, je ne peux rien faire d'autre que vous faire un copié/collé du document...


WOMEN & DIDJERIDOO – FACT SHEET


We at Didj Beat are respectful of the sensitivities, opinions, and feelings of Indigenous Australians when it comes to the use of the didjeridoo. In our consultations, we have received varied opinions regarding women & didjeridoo playing.
Indeed, Djalu' Gurruwiwi, tribal elder from north-east Arnhem Land and one of the primary custodians of the instrument, supports us in our business and gives us his blessings to play the instrument. You may wish to read comments on Djalu's web site where he expressly states his approval of non-indigenous women playing the instrument,
(see url http://www.djalu.com/tour/event_plan_en.htm, where, with regards to a cross-cultural program in Germany, it is stated, “All workshops and events are open to the public, and are suitable for both men and women including the didjeridoo playing workshops).

In addition, many Aboriginal players of the didjeridoo from the local Sydney area are our friends and customers.

1) David Blanasi, Wuglar Elder.

“I was at a workshop in Melbourne….among the wide variety of people were several women…so the inevitable was asked. The reply by David Blanasi [a Wugularr Northern Territory elder and didjeridoo craftsman] was basically that the taboo really applied to ceremonial use…and interpreted appropriately would equally apply to any of us non-initiated-non-originals (or whatever it is that we should call ourselves).

However, for the uses we derive, which Blanasi referred to as fun music, no such restrictions apply. This sounds to me to be eminently reasonable way to deal with this issue.” (Martin O’Loughlin) from the book,
‘The Didjeridoo from Arnhem Land to Internet’ Edited by Karl Neuenfeldt.


2) Article written by ‘Murray Garde’. Cultural research officer at Maningrida Arts and Culture and Aboriginal Art and Craft Cooperative based in Maningrida, Central – North Arnhem Land.

“Beliefs have developed about the didjeridoo which are not found among its original owners”.
These ideas emphasise the Didjeridoo’s sacred status and have endowed it with a mystic spirituality never held by its traditional cultures.

An example involves the well-known gender debate about whether women are ‘allowed’ to play the didjeridoo. While women in the Maningrida region do not play the didjeridoo this is not because of some strict taboo but simply because didjeridoo playing is not viewed as a usual female activity. In parts of the Gulf of Capentaria, such as near Borroloola, and in some places in the Kimberley region of Top End Western Australia, Aboriginal women do in fact play didjeridoo in traditional music and some have been quite famous for it.
Despite this, some Aboriginal people in southern parts of Australia now hold to a taboo on women playing the didjeridoo for more recently developed spiritual reasons [Barwick 1997:95].

Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land do not share such a view of the didjeridoo as a highly sacred and spiritual object – the sounds of which, in New Age mythologies, are even claimed to heal the sick”.
[Neuenfeldt, 1998:73-102]

Further facts also from the book ‘The Didjeridoo from Arnhem Land to Internet’ are as follows:

“For the Kimberleys area, a woman didjeridoo player is featured on the recording
‘Singing Up the Country ‘(1992) where on track 26, recorded in 1992, Polly Widalji plays a didjeridoo solo (Grandam Amboorny Wirnan, 1992). In 1996, a Miriwoong woman resident near Kununnarra in the east Kimberley, Annie Wilson, told me that she plays didjeridoo for her own amusement, although she would not play for ceremonies or in public.

Sandy Dann, a journalist and broadcaster resident in Broome in the west Kimberleys, occasionally plays didjeridoo in schools and in private jam sessions and reports that elders in the Broome area have been happy for her to do so (cited in personal communication from
Karl Neuenfeldt. 1996).

Because of adverse reactions by Aboriginal men from other places, reactions that have become especially evident in the last few years, she feels that as an Aboriginal woman it is now appropriate for her to play in public or for money and to teach the instrument (ibid.)



3) MILKAY MUNUNGURR : An outstanding player and maker of Didjeridoo is Milkay Munungurr. Playing didj since the age of 6 Milkay has spent his whole life absorbed by the instrument that has now become his namesake. Passed down the family line the didj has now become the focal point of this mans creativity.
From Arnhem Land, Milkay is notably one of the most successful aboriginal musicians in the world, playing in the famous band Yothu Yindi. In 2005, Didj Beat Didjeridoos in association with Milkay Munungurr conducted a workshop on traditional yidaki playing techniques and the question was asked of Milkay “What is your opinion on women and didjeridoo?” Response by Milkay: “The restriction only applies to ceremonial practice and aboriginal law”. “No such restriction applies outside of the context of aboriginal ceremony”. In other words, it is perfectly acceptable for non indigenous women to play the instrument outside of ceremony.

We understand that there might be a diversity of views on this matter in the Indigenous community. We appreciate that there is no singular opinion, and furthermore, we are also aware of the use of the didjeridoo by women in traditional Aboriginal society,
(see Dr Alice Moyle's excellent field recordings and her publication “Aboriginal Sound Instruments”, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1978,
Pg.17: “The second sample of didjeridoo playing is by a woman, Jemima Wimalu, who belongs to the Mara group at Roper River. Not only is Jemima able to perform A-type accompaniments but, as she demonstrates here, she is also practiced in playing didjeridoo accompaniments of the B-type….”)

Please also refer to the following web site http:www.yirrkala.com/yidaki/dhawu/35miyalk.html created by Randy Graves from Buku Larrngay Arts And Culture situated in Northeast Arnhem Land and his published results of Masters project ‘Didjeridu story from Far Northeast Arnhem Land’ quote “This is a very controversial issue often brought up in Australia and around the world. It may differ in other aboriginal communities, but in the Miwatj, the majority opinion is that no harm will come to women who play. Playing for fun is a simple physical activity not a dangerous spiritual one”.

In closing, the following statement by ethnomusicologist,
Peter Dunbar-Hall: “A widespread but erroneous urban myth holds that in Northern Australian societies, women are forbidden to touch or play the instrument, but the situation is merely a conventional matter: in public ceremonies, men usually play musical instruments, while women slap their skin or clap”. Pg. 446, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 9, Australia and the Pacific Islands, Garland Publishing Inc.,
New York (eds. Kaeppler, A.L. & Love, J.W.)





Melina Shirvanian
Proprietor
DIDJ BEAT DIDJERIDOO’S
The Rocks Sydney

[Ahaw]

Cool de mettre cette lettre Mia, ça met bien les choses en place.

Résumé en 1 phrase pour les non-anglophones :
"La restriction [exclusive aux hommes] s'applique seulement dans la Loi Aborigène et dans un cadre cérémoniel" - M.Mun*ngurr

Tu connais la date de publication de cet article ?
Parce qu'il parle de D.Bl*nasi et de M.Mun*ngurr comme des "amis et clients" encore vivants... Alors que Bl*nasi a disparu en 2001 et Mun*ngurr l'année dernière.

[Fils_de_poot]

Vraiment intéressant cet article! Si j'ai le temps prochainement, je ferais une traduction pour les lecteurs qui ne connaissent pas ou peu l'anglais, car cela mérite une petite "expansion" par chez nous...
Sinon pour le résumé, je mets 20/20 à Ahaw... :4:

[MiA]

merci, j'ai pas eu le courage pour la trad.
je vous transmets plus d'infos sur Mel. dès que j'en ai.
Et si vous avez d'autres questions à lui poser, pareil, je transmets dans l'autre sens...
En tout cas, je suis contente de pouvoir partager cet article.

[cyril]

Juste pour infos Didj beat n'existe plus....
un autre article concernant les femmes et le didg c'est sur yirdakiwuy dhawu
http://www.yirrkala.com/yidaki/dhawu/fr/35miyalk.html