April 2006 Newsletter from didjshop.com

Editorial

How nice it is to see the sun again! We just had at least a whole month of clouds and rain, lots of rain, and today is the first day where the sun came out occasionally. We even got nearly flooded - the rising river luckily stopped rising only five feet below our living room floor.
And we were the lucky ones. As you can read in our last newsletter, communities just south of here were hit by a category 5 cyclone and near the bottom of this newsletter you can see the picture of a house next to one of our suppliers that lost its roof.
Cyclone "Larry" was followed by cyclone "Monica" which crossed Cape York near the Aboriginal communities of Lockhardt River and Aurakun, but 'only' as a category three. This is what brought us here (~400-500km south) about 300mm rainfall in 24 hours. The heavy rain totally destroyed sections of the main highway up Cape York to Weipa, which will be impassable for at least three weeks due to huge wash-outs. Monica then intensified in the Gulf of Carpentaria to a category five (with over 350km/h winds!) and headed for Arnhemland. Djalu ad the Yothu Yindi boys in Nhulunbuy were lucky that Monica passed far enough away so they just got the very edge of it with winds of less than 100km/h.
But then Monica went along the northern edge of Arnhem land and made landfall just west of Maningrida, where it ripped off part of the roof of the local school, which served as emergency shelter. I know Jack Nawilil, Maningrida songman and elder, and was very glad to hear that no-one seems to have been killed or seriously injured in Maningrida. It would have been very scary for the people in the school when the roof started flying off. Luckily Monica quickly weakened once it was overland and it took a more southerly route than expected so Darwin was spared what could have been worse than cyclone Tracy (Darwin got nearly totally destroyed by cyclone Tracy in 1974).
I think everyone in northern parts of Australia hopes that this was the last cyclone of the season.
It is a bit worrying to see that many high intensity cyclones in one season and I am afraid this might be a sign of things to come as global warming means hotter oceans which means stronger cyclones. Hopefully our leaders become aware of that connection and the many other negative effects of global warming and act very soon to reduce human impact on global warming...

From the excitement of cyclones to the excitement of new products on Didjshop.com. Due to the very wet weather we have no new didjes (every process takes so much longer due to excessive drying periods) but we do have new shields, boomerangs, bullroarers and a teaching DVD (see below).

Next comes a very sad topic, the passing of a very dear virtual friend, Fokko, better known as 'big belly Bonzo' at least on our forum. The timing of Fokko's passing is almost spooky, but please read more for yourself below.

Which brings us to the use of the didj in healing, and you can read a bit more about my view on that topic in this newsletter. To stay with that theme, most of the monthly visitors comments I selected are about didj healing experiences - also because we uploaded new sections to the comments part of our website.

You will also find the usual monthly Aboriginal news stories near the bottom of this newsletter. Thanks to those of you who have mentioned to me in emails and comments that you really appreciate this service. It does take a lot of time but I feel passionate about Aboriginal issues and like to share them with all of you.

I like to finish the editorial with a wonderful story I was just made aware of. Douglas and Skyer, two of our customers and global didj family members just met in person (see photo on right). Reading their account of that meeting in our forum just made my day. It feels really great to see such meetings and friendships happening simply by providing a community space on our website. Please do use our Didjnet and our Forum to actively participate in this growing global didj family, you never know whom you might meet... Thanks to Skyer and Douglas for sharing that uplifting story.

Please mark the 21 June on your calendars for the next Worldwide Didj Meditation, when our global didj family can all didj together again - maybe you can even organise some friends to come along, they'll love it. Thanks

Please enjoy the rest of the newsletter...

Svargo

New Shields, DVD and Boomerangs

There is a whole range of new products in our online shop. You can find many new small and large shields including this huge shield which is nearly five foot tall (146cm) with intricate artwork and carving. Its certainly the biggest one we ever had and I have never seen anything like it for sale. An impressive piece of Aboriginal art.

Next there are new boomerangs, a large and a small carved and painted returning boomerang and a large carved and painted ceremonial boomerang.
We also have a new carved and painted small bullroarer. These are made by Trevor and they sport his trademark carved and burned designs with painted artwork

And we finally have 'Learn to Play the Didgeridoo' teaching video on DVD. Some of you have been asking for this since a long time and we had hoped to have had it ready before Christmas. Well, better late than never.
Having what is probably still the best circular breathing teaching aid on DVD makes it even more valuable because now you can easily go to any of its sixteen chapters, eleven of which deal with teaching circular breathing. The DVD also has sections about didj maintenance, David teaching traditional animal sounds and a didgeridoo sound healing session. The ease of navigating a DVD combined with its content make this 60 minute teaching video an excellent learning tool - thousands of people have learned circular breathing with its help.

Farewell to Bonzo

Many of you will remember Bonzo, who moderated the Didjshop forum since its creation in April 2004. Under his watch and with the help of his witty and heartful posts the forum grew to over 800 registered users and over 3000 messages in just two years. I have no time to check out other didgeridoo websites, but have been told and believe that this makes the Didjshop forum the biggest Didgeridoo forum on the internet.

Back to my dear virtual friend, Bonzo's real name was Fokko and he passed away on Sunday, 2nd April at 18:00GMT. The timing of his death sends shivers down my spine because it was exactly one hour after about two dozen forum regulars around the world finished a time synchronised didj healing for Fokko. Both his daughters played didj during the meditation in his room and Bonzo was aware of all of us playing for him.
I like to thank everyone who did participate in this special didj meditation, it was an unforgettable experience for myself and made me feel very connected with our global family.
Our didj playing was obviously for the peace of his soul rather than healing his cancer. I can't help but marvel at the timing of his passing. It is as if Fokko was waiting for our didj send-off...

I like to thank Trijnie, Fokko's wife, for the beautiful and calm being she is and has been in this testing time for all of us (but specially for herself) and for sharing this account of the funeral:
"I want to tell you something about our goodbye to Fokko. Fokko stayed at home with us after passing away and was lying on a bed in the living room.
All those days we had the feeling that he still shared our lives. With the sad moments but also with cheerful ones. For two days long it was possible for friends to visit us and so many people came over.
Friday morning we left home to the crematory. Twenty motor-cyclists accompanied us and that was very impressive.
In the crematory, there were so many people to say good-bye for the last time. Dozens of them had to stay in an other hall watching a screen. Several people have spoken and Anouk and Myrna played Fokko's didges, one after an other, with René Stahn and his wife Romy. They sat around the coffin and it looked and sounded very serene and peaceful.
Then Anouk, Myrna and I told our own story with all the special memories of Fokko. At the end I had chosen for a number of John Lee Hooker called: "My dream". Fokko was a great admirer of his blues.
Afterwards the three of us accompanied Fokko for the very last time. We saw his coffin go into the oven and we had the feeling that we had completed his last journey.
I am sure that Fokko would be very proud of us. We will miss him so much but I am sure that Anouk, Myrna and I will survive together. Fokko was a very loving husband and father and we will always remember him in a very special way. We had good times together, it only was too short.
I want to ask you to thank all the people who played for Fokko on the 2nd of April, in your next Newsletter. I saved all the mails concerning the Sound Healing."

I am sorry to have never met Fokko in person and that his dream to come to Australia never happened.
May his soul rest in peace.

I hope my own passing will be as peaceful and stately as Fokko's - including a didj send-off :-).
Please feel free to check out Fokko's personal website.

Didgeridoo Healing

Recently I got involved in a few discussions on didj healing with some people saying it is all new-age mumbo-jumbo, while others claim to have called up Aboriginal ancestors when they give didj healing sessions.

Since there are recurring discussions in our forum and I keep receiving emails on the subject, I'd like to give you my five cents worth. First and foremost please be aware that this is just my personal opinion and you are entitled to a different one.

I personally believe that the didj is a very powerful healing tool. Firstly it is very healing for the player. As most of us would be aware of playing the didj has a profoundly relaxing effect. Many people cite didj playing as the best medicine to unwind from daily stress. It is empowering and calming at the same time. Playing the didj also stimulates the lips, where a lot of nerve endings are. Last not least it helps to calm the mind and stimulates breathing. All of these have a positive effect on health of the player. I am aware that asthma and other breathing diseases as well as stress, headaches and emotional unbalances can benefit greatly from playing the didj.

For the listener the extremely low frequencies of the didj seem to put people into an alert but relaxed state. Most people feel an instant attraction to the didj when they first hear it.

In intentional didj healing sessions where the didj gets played close to the body, its vibrations can be felt inside of the body. The vibration is stronger for didjes with high resonance, so as a didj healer you want to find didjes with high resonance. I am convinced that the physical vibrations of the sound in the body does have a healing effect. I imagine that the blood circulation would be stimulated leading to better oxygenation of the area played on. In my experience, the didj can be very helpful in reducing swellings, speeding the healing of bruises and broken bones, helping with arthritis, easing head aches, muscle and other pains and possibly even cancer (cancer is usually an anaerobic condition and oxygenation can have positive effects). Sadly there is no scientific medical studies available yet except the now famous study on the effect of didj playing on sleep apnoea. So all you doctors and medical scientist out there, there is lots of interesting work to be done. I hope that we will see many more studies in the next few years. In the meantime there is a large body of circumstantial evidence in our extensive healing comments section, where hundreds of people have described their personal experiences with didj healing. This is probably the biggest resource on didgeridoo healing.

I can hear some of you ask 'did Aboriginal people use the didj for healing?'. Yes they did and probably still do, however I ask all of you to forget about copying what Aboriginal people use the didj for, even how they play it. In my experience Aboriginal people do not like white fellas to copy them. And this is valid not just for didj healing, but also for didj playing and even for Aboriginal artwork. Djalu has been known to have said "play yidaki in your own style", yet many people keep trying to copy Aboriginal playing styles. Far North Queensland and Arnhemland elders have told me to do what I want with the didj whether it is playing, healing, meditating or anything else.
On didgeridoo sound healing I have asked David, a well known Arnhemland elder, whether Aboriginal people traditionally used the didj for sound healing and whether it is ok for me as a white fellow to use the didj for sound healing. David told me that they did use the didj for sound healing but it was not played directly over the body just in the same space as where sick people were. He told me that it is ok for me to use the didj in any way I feel like and that there is no problem for me or anyone to use the didj for sound healing.

However I do ask all of you to never claim that you are doing any Aboriginal healing when doing didj sound healing. And there is no need, the sound itself and the physical vibrations are what is healing, there is no need to invoke any Aboriginal energy or entity. Sadly the fact that Aboriginal society has many secret aspects results in many western people wanting to learn those secrets or pretending to know some of them. Respect for Aboriginal people includes to not pretend to represent them or their culture, specially in didj healing. It also means respecting their secrets.

So please feel free to experiment and play around with didgeridoo sound healing, but own whatever you find out or experience without relying on the Aboriginal roots of the didgeridoo.

The DVD also has sections about didj maintenance, David teaching traditional animal sounds and a didgeridoo sound healing session (see image below in 'Didgeridoo Healing' section). The ease of navigating a DVD combined with its content make this 60 minute teaching video an excellent learning tool - thousands of people have learned circular breathing with its help.

Experiences with Sound Healing

In order to stay with the main theme of this newsletter I will focus this month on healing comments. I love the first comment by Dorothy because it beautifully shows that you will never be too young or to old to play your didj and help someone by doing so:

• Dorothy from USA: "I have used it on my 50 yr old daughter and each time she felt very relaxed. She had a recurrence of breast cancer and I will continue as an addition to her chemo."
• Aurélien from Belgium: "It's like a vibratory massage. Each cell is purified by the vibration."
• Luke from Germany: "I had a monstrous migraine headache and played the didj... to my surprise my headache lessened."
• Ashleigh from USA: "The healing I received was from a very experienced and skilled didge player and it was by far the best healing work I have ever felt and as a massage therapist for over 25 years I have a lot of experience in healing work. The didge works on many dimensions and clears stuff the average person didn't even know about yet they are still able to appreciate the level of work being done. While there are no "end all or be alls" in the healing field the didge comes very close. And I have very little experience with it and limited playing ability."
• Agnieszka (Aga) Milogrodzka from Poland: "The first time I was giving the didge healing was the most intensive experience. I assisted my (now) boyfriend in a big healing session. I tried to relate emotionally to each person individually and to heal and balm their mind and body. I've only been given didge healing by my boyfriend so it is always intimate. I feel that my body becomes relaxed and all stress flows from it. The vibrations from the didge penetrate my body to the core of my cells and nervous system cleaning them and returning them to their primal state - to such an extent that I experienced a feeling relative to an orgasm - no joke - it was really strange and amazing for me."
• Claudia from USA: "I have severe back hip and knee problems. Lets just say I felt it in my bones. I left the session walking straight and tall! It didn't last too long however because I will need to keep up on it to trance my body to a healthy posture."
• Nigel from United Kingdom: "For years my wife had a problem with her foot lots of pain in the winter. after 1hr playing over it she has had no pain since"
• Luciano Giambastiani from Argentina: "I give didge. sound healing to my mother she has reumatoidean arthritis so she had experienced relax... I used didge. to heal some breathing maladies.. And I'm interested in breathing techniques. like yoga breath etc. (I'm clarinetist and saxophone player too so i'm interested in techniques of breath."
• Douglas Vroonen from Belgium: "I did give sound healing to one of my sons a while ago he had a heart problem who was reduce by sound healing the surgeon never understood it."
• Lawrence from USA: "When I was 16 I had an overactive thyroid. My doctor put me on some medicines. I went camping with some friends about a month after I started taking them. About a week into the trip it was nighttime and my friends were sleeping. I was sitting alone outside by the campfire. I heard something in the distance like a low droning sound. I recognised the sound as a didgeridoo. I hadn't had any real exposure to the instrument at this time and I was very curious. I started to make my way towards the sound. I saw another fire up ahead away from the lake about 100 feet. Approaching the fire I could see a guy sitting against a large rock playing his didgeridoo. He stopped and looked up at me. He said hey man what's up? and I said I just heard you playing. We started talking. When we were talking about the didgeridoo he mentioned that he uses it for healing and for meditation as well as just playing. Since the guy was basically a stranger to me I told him about my thyroid gland and asked him if he would do some healing on me. He agreed and we set it up so the bell was pointing at my neck from about 5 feet away. He asked me if I was ready and I said yeah. When he started to play I closed my eyes and concentrated on the sounds healing me. He seemed like he played for about an hour but I think it was only about 10 minutes. Afterwards we talked some more. He let me try to play it but I didn't yet have the hang of it but I was hooked. I stopped taking my pills to see what would happen. I was supposed to take them for a year and then stop to see if my thyroid gland would return to normal function but after a month when I stopped taking them my thyroid was functioning normally and the doctor said it happens like that on very rare occasions and that I was certainly lucky. I still wonder sometimes if it was the didgeridoo."

These are just some of the many experiences people from all around the world share on the subject of sound healing with the didgeridoo. You can find many more very interesting comments on didgeridoo sound healing in our new visitors comments section.

And just because there were so many wonderfully encouraging comments on didjshop.com I will share just five of those:

• Andy from United Kingdom: "The Didjshop Is a very good if not the best Didj site very well put together easy to navigate / and the best thing about the site and the shop is that you run a very reliable service to any where in the world ( Fast Delivery on all Didjes )"
• Jerry from USA: "It is excellent. i was very pleased regarding the process of purchasing my didj through didjshop. Also I look forward each month to receive the newsletter."
• Colin from Canada: "Yes. I like I like. I did find however that I had to jump between different price points a lot. It would have been nice to be able to search all Didj based on Sound Quality only. I was looking for something in between $400 and $600 and had no real preference for painted or plain. It would have made it easier to compare. ...but like I said I think the site is very good. Professional honest informative and fun. Hell I wasn't going to buy a Didj until I started playing around on your site. Now I have a Concert Medium on it's way. I guess it did everything a website should do. Well Done Colin" [OUR COMMENT: You can do a search for sound quality only and even narrow it down to a certain price range - check out the search function]
• Ian from Hong Kong: "A very thorough didj resource. i have used it to connect with other didj players in my city. Thanks"
• Darren from United Kingdom: "What can I say everyone I know that has purchased a didge from you guys is so pleased never heard a bad word yet. more info than any other didge site on the net very friendly and helpful and the guys on the forum are great."

Please enjoy reading through some of the other inspiring Didjshop comments.

March Winner!

The winner of our monthly A$ 50.- shopping voucher is Dorie van Gelder from Appeltern in the Netherlands - interesting to have a Dutch winner considering Fokko was a Dutchman.

Congratulations, Dorie and thank you for having participated a few times in the solstice and equinox didgeridoo meditations. Thank you also for your comment about didgeridoo meditation: "I became one with nature and it relaxes me". Well spoken.

We trust Dorie will find something in Didjshop.com to spend the money on...

Aboriginal News

Two month of Aboriginal news resulted in many interesting Aboriginal news stories - here a short summary of some of them:

• Lets start with some good news this month: Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough refuses to block the handover of ten central Australian reserves and parks to traditional owners. Some locals are opposed to the hand-back because of concerns of possible entry fees or public access restrictions. But because the Northern Territory government has proposed the hand-over three years ago and the Aboriginal Northern Land Council agrees to is, the ministers spoke man has ruled out blocking the deal. We thank the minister for this decision.
• In December I reported claims about sweatshop conditions and fraud in the Aboriginal art industry (famous artists signing or posing with artworks that were not theirs). The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has just finished their investigation which followed up on a two year investigation by the Major Fraud Squad. ACCC regional director Sam Di Scerni said: "The commission's had a very good look at the matter - done it's own major investigation, reviewed the files and came to the same sort of conclusion that there is just too much difficulty in trying to establish evidence necessary to prove any breaches, so unfortunately we've closed the matter and won't be taking it any further."
  The implication of this message is loud and clear: there is no denial that those practices are happening, just that the ACCC will not prosecute.
  Meanwhile I have heard rumours about Aboriginal artists being flown to Indonesia to teach Indonesian artists how to produce better Aboriginal art fakes... You go and figure.
• Federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has recently visited Alice Springs and has compared the Aboriginal town camps in and around Alice to the notorious townships in South Africa: "It represents a sea of despair and I think people right around the country would be upset about it," he said.
  I know that this is an understatement and that many of you would be upset about the situation in those camps, too. On average there is a murder every month in Alice Springs with many of them in the townships. The mixture of hopelessness, resentment and alcohol is a recipe for disaster.
  It is promising that Joe Hockey as well as the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, the Northern Territory's Minister for Central Australia, Peter Toyne and the Mayor of Alice Springs all agree that something has to be done. I hope it will not be just window dressing or removing the Aboriginal people from town. The roots of the problem have to be addressed, not just the symptoms.
  We believe a really easy and very effective measure is to ban the import of 'Aboriginal arts and crafts' made in Indonesia into Australia and to enforce compulsory labelling for Aboriginal products and we will ask those federal ministers again to do just that. This would immediately create a huge demand for real Aboriginal art creating employment for Aboriginal people and return a pride in their culture to them. No wonder Aboriginal people are frustrated, resentful and angry if they see the tourist shops sell imported fakes everyday.
• National Indigenous Council chairwoman Sue Gordon added a potentially explosive aspect to that debate by requesting that government agencies remove Aboriginal children from their parents in those camps if they are exposed to abuse and neglect. She asks authorities to work together with local Aboriginal leaders to provide a safe environment for those children.
  This amply demonstrates that there are no easy solutions. We all can agree that children should not be abused or neglected by their drunken parents. Knowing how important family ties are for Aboriginal people to have an Aboriginal woman to request children to be removed from their Aboriginal parents shows the severity of the problem.
  Lets hope that the three levels of government find solutions that return some dignity to Aboriginal people in those camps and some meaning to their lives. We owe it to them.
• On a related topic, a group of Aboriginal protesters has been tending a sacred fire at Melbourne's King's Domain since the Commonwealth Games in the middle of March. The action by Aboriginal people is to protest against the treatment of Australia's Indigenous community using the Commonwealth games to highlight their plight.
  About a month into the protest, authorities tried to end the protest. To pre-empt those moves, protesters signed a declaration invoking the Commonwealth Cultural Heritage Act, allowing them to keep the sacred fire burning at King's Domain for a further 30 days. The group had hoped this would provide enough time to negotiate the significance of the site with local authorities, but then found themselves barred from a meeting in the town hall.
  Instead of negotiating, local authorities ruled that tents are permanent structures and forced their removal and also extinguished a cooking fire, making it very difficult for the Aboriginal protesters to stay in the park in the cold conditions.
  To prevent an extension of the order that allowed the fire to be tended, the Government is taking away the power to make declarations from Indigenous inspectors, which means the sacred fire can be legally extinguished by authorities on the 10th of May.
  Ringo Terrick, who has been tending the fire at the Domain, said: "It doesn't really make any difference when they put it out because we're taking the fire out to the communities, it will never be put out".
  Again the government refuses to get the message and prefers to get rid of the messengers...
• The last news story this month is not Aboriginal, but too funny to pass up: One evening in the end of March in central Australia the driver of a 4-wheeldrive waved down a passing car and asked where Uluru is. The passing car happened to be the local police patrol which duly pointed out to the man that his headlights were actually shining on the base of Uluru, a 340 meter high monolith. The now suspicious police breath-tested the driver returning a reading of 0.116, more than double the legal limit and also found he was driving without a licence. Moral: Don't ask every passing car for directions, even if you are in the middle of outback Australia :-)

Keep on didjing until next month ...

from Svargo and the DIDJSHOP.COM team