February 2006 Newsletter from didjshop.com

Editorial

This month you will only receive a very short newsletter. I am sorry, but life has been too busy for me mainly with local issues. So I rather send you this short newsletter now than none at all this month.

This is partly because I want to ask you for some help and partly because of many questionnaire comments like this one by Richard Curtis from USA: "Hey I'm not a didj heavy. I love the sound and by that have created an appreciation for Australian Aborigine culture and concern for its life. I really value your site and the news and perspective that you deliver beyond the mindful commerce. Honestly there's loads of e-mail out there and your newsletters are like a letters from friends I haven't made yet. I don't normally read newsletters! Thanks to you all and much respect to the Grandparent of all Human Cultures. Cheers from New Hampshire USA Richard"
Thanks Richard and thanks to the fifteen (!) other comments this month referring to the newsletter. I share the family feeling and dream of travelling around the world to meet at least some of you - now I just need that holiday to happen which I'm waiting for since four years... I remember that in the beginning I thought twice before writing anything personal, but now I just share my thoughts and feelings - well most of them :-). It sure is good to know this personal approach is appreciated by some. I enjoy my return to writing, something I have not done for over 20 years.

The big local issue I got involved in - and want to ask your help with - is the planned 4-lane highway from Cairns to Kuranda which some of you already know about (please see below).
We are in the last week of the final public submission period and I have been involved in making detailed submissions, investigating alternative options, reading lots of lengthy reports, making movies and giving talks.

I also have to disappoint those of you who are hanging out for new didjes. Trevor finally made it to record them but he still has not finished the sound grading (and we need at least two people to do so to remove personal bias a bit). There are some big bells and really long ones, but you must have to wait a bit longer. We run on 'Murri time' - a term used in Australia to describe that things always happen much later than planned if Aborigines are involved....
The good news is that we have new T-shirts and you can any size and colour again.

In our forum we have edited some posts. We have done so because some of you have used (obviously unconsciously) a rather derogatory term for Aborigines, which we really do not want to see in our forum. So even if it is fast and easy, please do not just use the first three letters of the word Aborigine in your posts. In Australia that is a highly derogatory term. We also ask that you please use a capital 'A' in Aborigine. Aboriginal people are no different to Americans or Italians or any other people on the world, so please lets give them the respect they deserve. Thank you. BTW the Didjshop forum is abuzz with many wonderful discussions on how to build amazing didjes, how to make interesting sounds and many other topics and some great advice like this one. Check out the forum and become part of the discussions!

While on our web site, I have the honour to present to you a new page in our Aboriginal culture section called 'What is Reconciliation?'. It is a wonderful article by Hannah Rachel Bell who has a great writing style incorporating quotes from Aboriginal people. Please read this new page for some wonderful insights on how Aboriginal people think.

And please folks, get to your wall calendars and mark a big cross on the 21 March, its time for worldwide equinox didjing, time for us to let our didjes weave a sound carpet around the globe in unison! Which reminds me I still have not answered all those of you who emailed me about their participation or organised events like Bart in Eindhoven (I remember that one because I grew up in nearby Aachen). Please accept my apologies and please do not let my slackness affect your enthusiasm, it is wonderful that you folks carry my slack. It is great to see this regular event slowly grow and I hope that we will have thousands of participants soon. But for that many of you folks have to become more active and participate and help spread the word.
And yes, we will do a page with regular supporters so if you want to be added, please email me.

Please enjoy the rest of the newsletter, even if there is a lot less than normal this month...

Svargo

Please Help Save Kuranda

First a bit of background for those of you who do not yet know:
Kuranda (where I live) is presently a beautiful village in the rainforest with about 3000 people of which about one third are Aboriginal people - which makes for one of the best interracial communities in Australia.
The present highly scenic road from the coast up the range to Kuranda is a green tunnel with glimpses of coast and ocean which is loved by about half a million tourists every year.
Our Queensland government wants to "upgrade" it to a 4-lane highway with 1.7 meter high concrete and steel barriers to allow more traffic, longer and bigger trucks and facilitate the development of Kuranda to suburbia with 50,000 to 90,000 people.
As you can imagine this would transform the present scenic drive into what would basically be an open roofed concrete tunnel. It would also transform our beautiful rainforest village into sprawling suburbia and totally marginalise Aboriginal people to less than 2% of total population.
On the two images you can see the different view from the Cairns coastal plain, and in this government illustration there is no allowance for the huge shadows the many bridges will cast and the reflection of sunlight on moving vehicles...

The present submission period was called by the World Heritage Wet Tropics Management Authority and it is the last chance for the public to have any say. The Queensland government has applied to the Wet Tropics Management Authority to rezone 25 hectares from World Heritage to Concrete Jungle.

Needless to say most locals do not like the idea of this project and there are many possibly devastating effects and consequences. Many locals are worried that the 4-lane highway and the follow-on suburban developments would drive away tourists, cause massive traffic delays during construction, destroy the village character, destroy lots of forest, thousands of new dogs and cats would kill native wildlife and it would look terrible not just from the coast but also from the road itself and from Skyrail, a rainforest cable way (visible going up the centre of the top picture).

And all this while there is a better alternative: they can build a tunnel straight from Cairns to Mareeba, a close-by township and develop there where people would welcome it.

And here is how you can really help Kuranda and local Aborigines a lot:
Kuranda and the whole Cairns region is very dependant on tourism and all of you are potential tourists - and I do hope to get visits from a few of you in future. So it is very valuable if you can please write a short email to margaret.woodland@epa.qld.gov.au to express your dismay at this proposed project and ask the Wet Tropics Management Authority to not rezone World Heritage Areas for this proposed 4-lane highway. Please make sure you give your name and address.
Deadline for submissions is the 3rd of March, so please try and get your email off before then. But even if you get it off after that (because I sent this so late), it will still help and might even be accepted.

There is no need for a lot of arguments, we have lots of good ones, what matters now is to get high numbers of objectors.

Thank You.

2005 didj winner

We have received a picture and a few words from Walter Simion, the very lucky winner of our 2005 didj competition. Check out this picture - this guy lives in a top spot and now he has a top didj, what a beautiful combination! Walter, I trust you play that didj to those mountains...

Here is what Walter wrote:

"Hello everybody, I'm Walter from Tonadico, Italy.
I'm very very happy to win this beautiful price.
I live with my wife and two children and we all play the didj. I also play the trumpet, my wife plays the saxophone and the kids are learning trumpet and trombone. We are a musical family! We love nature and we live in a beautiful small house in the forest up in the mountain.
5 years ago my friend Andrew from Australia showed me his didgeridoo and it was a revelation for me. Peace, harmony, relaxation, universal soul sound is the message.
I've found some didjes in Europe, but they don't have a good sound quality. I patiently searched a lot on the Internet to find the right one, and now I found it - The Didjshop.
Now I've two concert class didgeridoos and I like to play them to relax my soul and heart and also to have nice evenings with my friends. To play with friends is really a fine thing. Thank you very very much and have I nice time. Ciao Walter"

Winner of this month Didjshop competition draw

The lucky winner of our February 2006 A$50 shopping voucher is Henri Chorand from Quimper in France.

Henri got his winning ticket when he became a didjshop affiliate with his web site about Reiki, Kundalini and didj healing. If you can read French, you can check it out: http://www.chorand.com/.

Congratulations, Henri and may your web site and didj healing be successful.

New Questionnaire Comment Topic

This year we have asked a new question in our competition questionnaire: 'Why are you interested in Didgeridoos?', so here a few early replies to this question which I found well spoken and enlightening:

• Phil from USA: "The didjeridu makes people smile. You just don't get the kind of positive response from people by playing western instruments that you do with the didj!"
• Benji from Canada: "If the planet had a voice that we could all hear it would be the sound of the didgeridoo. Being able to get in touch with this voice allows for one to help speed up the much needed healing process the planet has to embark on. I am proud to be able to be a participant."
• Sasa Zezelic from Croatia/Hrvatska: "They are surprisingly simple yet extremely powerful they give me opportunity to express Self and they keep me connected to nature..Here in Zagreb Croatia this simple instrument is a gravity point that brought together many very interesting people - it's amazing!!"
• Anonymous from USA: "It is such a simple instrument that can produce complex output. It is from the earth. It is ancient. It can connect to people deep inside."
• Jason from Australia: "I could play one instantly."
• Jennifer White from Canada: "I love the sound. The ancient sound. It connects me to the Present Moment and with my inner body wisdom."
• Anonymous from USA: "I enjoy playing them they are soothing instruments that help me get some clarity and I love playing an instrument its something I never thought I could do"
• Sam from USA: "I have never had musical training in my life but 4 years ago I started playing the didge with my friends and we started jamming with djembes and sticks. It was one of the funniest times I had in high school. We all got really good at our instruments for never having musical training we just played by ear."

And we keep on getting so many amazing comments about Didjshop.com:

• Anonymous from USA: "I enjoy seeing and hearing all the incredible didjeridus. The one I bought from Didjshop is the best my favorite and the one everyone asks me about. The web site is not just an online store - it is a great source of information and communication. Thank you!"
• Brian from United Kingdom: "I love the site and all the info on the Aboriginal people and their struggle in gaining their rights have one didge from you which has become a firm favorite."
• Bas Piek from Netherlands: "Clearly satisfying most informative site about not only didge but over aborigine an australia's politics as well. Always looking forward to you next newsletter. More important not only very good web site but also very GOOD products and nice service after the sale."
• Kenneth Hicks from Canada: "I save a bit from each paycheck I get in order to get a Didje from https://www.didgshop.com... NOT because they have the BEST Selection on the Net... and NOT because they have some of be BEST Sounding Didje's on the Net... and DEFINATELY NOT because they have the BEST Price on the net... because they have ALL 3 of them and SO MUCH MORE... I can see quite a Musical Future for my in 2006... HIT THE BASE DRONE !!!"
• Anonymous from USA: "It is one of the most trust-worthy web sites out there (my experience with many others' didges from this shop) with an easily navigable site. It is comprehensive in giving detailed gradings for the different aspects of the didgeridoo so you can easily judge what type of didge you are buying."
• Anonymous from Australia: "I like is - its clean sensibly laid out and I think the sound files are WONDERFUL (though the housewife/limited budget thing gets annoying when I listen to some of your concert quality ones). The best part is that it comes through as honest - 'have a go on PVC' isn't glamorous but the 'you need to spend $600 on a learners didge to begin' assumption by some other sellers is well untrue to put it politely."
• Sam from USA: "Since I first visited this site it is the only didgeridoo web site I go to now and the only one I would purchase didjeridoos from. I've learned about didge maintenance how to circular breathe what to look for in a didgeridoo and much more because of this site. I have also purchased my two favorite and best didgeridoos from this site."
• M Rick from USA: "Found the site last year - AFTER I had returned from a visit to Australia. I had purchased my second Didj at an art shop with genuine aboriginal Didges and artwork and was pleased but when I leaned of your shop I was sorry that I had not been able to visit. No Worries ! After reading the site info and newsletter and looking and listening to hundreds of Didges in your on line search - I picked out the one I wanted and right before Christmas I bought it for myself! I was astounded at how fast it arrived and how exactly perfect it is. Just as I imagined it from looking and listening online. I have recommended the site to all of my Didge friends and many others as well. I will buy my next Didge from Didjshop - probably in person next time!"

Specially this month the comments were overwhelming. Thanks folks for so many wonderful feedback. I could have listed dozens here but did not want to bore you too much, but if you are interested to read a few more, please check them out.

Sorry folks, I have no time this month for the Aboriginal news. I promise I will bring them next month. Hopefully you can use the time usually spent reading them by helping our local Aborigines and send an email objection against the 4-lane highway (see above). Thanks

Sorry again for the shortness of this newsletter and keep on didjing, my friends...

...until next month

Svargo
and the DIDJSHOP.COM team