March 2006 Newsletter from didjshop.com

Editorial

What an exciting week. We were very lucky for cyclone 'Larry' to go just far enough south so we had no serious damage here (see more below). We even managed to have our local part of the worldwide Didgeridoo Meditation on the day the cyclone hit (see below).
The good news a lot of you have been waiting for is that we have finally uploaded lots of new didjes (see below) and there are some amazing didjes!

And some of you might be glad to hear that within a month we are going to have our teaching video available on DVD. Many have asked and we just placed the order. We have also received new paintings, bullroarers and shields which we still have to photograph and catalogue but they should be online before the next newsletter too.

The next batch of didjes however will take a bit longer because the supplier we ordered a couple of hundred didjes from two weeks ago has lost part of his house in the cyclone so we have to wait a bit for him to get back to normal, but with the new stock you have a lot of great didjes to pick from anyway...

A big thank you for all of you who helped last month by emailing an objection to the 4-lane highway our government wants to build to Kuranda. The decision will be made in the next few month and I hope they will reconsider other options and not destroy our beautiful rainforest village.

Some of you are wondering how our dear friend Bonzo is doing. Well the bad news is that his Non-Hodgkin did not respond to the two bouts of chemotherapy he received in hospital. The good news is that he is now back at home where his wife and two daughters can care for him a bit better and easier. Bonzo is in a lot of pain and I agree with many of the forum regulars that we should all have a special time synchronised didj playing session to send Bonzo some healing didj energy from his friends around the globe.
I have asked his wife for a good time to do a synchronised didj healing session for him but have not gotten a clear response. So I looked at what time is best so people in US/Canada can participate while Europeans are awake considering that those are the areas with the most players (sadly there is no time which would suit us in Oz as well without it getting to late for Bonzo).
So I suggest we all play didj for Bonzo on Sunday, the 2nd of April at 16:00 GMT.
Douglas suggested for all of us to play for 45 minutes while imagining a white stream of energy running from the end of our didj to Bonzo in northern Netherlands and then to sit in silence for 15 minutes - see his forum post for details.
I have posted this event in the forum, please go there and post your commitment to participate with your location and local time, so Bonzo can see where people will play for him.
Thank You.

Also please find below lots of Aboriginal news items to keep you informed on what is happening to Australian Aborigines and a lot of wonderful feedback from our visitors and the winner of the March A$50,- shopping voucher is a French man :-)

I trust you'll enjoy the rest of this newsletter...

Svargo

Lots of New didjes

Finally! I know some of you have been waiting for a long time and I had hoped to have some new stock online since quite a while, especially since we sold quite a few didjes already this year, but circumstances have delayed us.

Anyway we are glad to announce that we have just uploaded over one hundred new didjes! And you will be pleasantly surprised if you see them. These are some of the biggest, longest and best didjes we have ever had! Even if you do not want to buy any didj, do some window shopping and check them out.

There are some of the biggest bells we have ever had with one monster measuring 460mm across! Then there are several very long didjes with excellent deep sounds - one low E, an amazing looking low F and several other long didjes in keys from low F# to low A. So if you like the really deep drones of long didjes, have a listen to some of these beauties.

In this new upload there are also many Great Players as well as many Unusual Shapes and also many Cheap Learners and affordable painted didjes.

You can check out all of these recently uploaded beauties here. And you might want to do so soon, especially if you are looking to find some rare didj, because I just notice that there are already seven of these new didjes ordered despite them just having been uploaded three days ago!

Many of you have bought several didjes from us, but if you do not know us that well yet, please feel free to have a look at the thousands of didjes we sold to happy customers in over 50 countries or check out the great comments from customers in the feedback section below :-)

Lucky escape from a big Cyclone

As most of you would have heard on the news, we just had a category 5 cyclone in the Cairns area. Thanks for the concerned emails from some of you but we were really lucky. The centre of the cyclone roared past only about 75km south of here. To show you how close that was I have put a red dot where Kuranda is in the image on the right - the cyclone was tracking straight west. So we expected very destructive winds and possibly flooding, which did not eventuate.

What really helped is that cyclone 'Larry' was a fairly narrow system and it was moving very fast. We spent two days getting ready for a monster (it could have come right over us) and we had our didj shed battened down with big shutters in front of all windows and evacuated all important things from the house to the shed because the shed is much stronger. I was still running around early in the morning while the winds were picking up and it started raining and then I thought: 'its not that bad yet, we are all set up, so I'll have some breakfast before I go into the shed for the worst of it'.
While I was having breakfast in our roofed but open living area, we had some fairly strong wind gusts which made me hold onto things on the table and brought down a huge tree along the river and several branches and small trees around the place. These strong gusts of maybe 100km/hr lasted only for half an hour and then things quietened down again. We only got about 30mm of rain which is just so unusual for a cyclone that close and that strong - you'd expect at least 300mm.

'Larry' was not just the 'driest' cyclone I ever experienced but also the very first cyclone I know off which actually intensified while accelerating. Normally cyclones intensify when slowing down and they weaken if they speed up. But 'Larry' intensified from a category 2 to the highest category 5 while it steadily accelerated from about 15km/hr to about 30km/hr. I guess the trade-off was the much narrower path than usual which saved us from having more serious damage.

Sadly in Innisfail, where it first hit land, 'Larry' had a lot of punch with its up to 280km/hr wind gusts and 80% of all buildings were damaged or totally destroyed and almost all trees knocked over. Miraculously no one was killed.
In typical Australian fashion some of the locals were having an early drink in the pub (the cyclone came in at about 7am!) when most of the roof flew off. So they just took refuge in the kitchen area and kept drinking....

In the days after the cyclone I had a few friends visiting to recharge their mobile phones from our solar power. And when calling around because of the change in venue for our didj meditation that evening (see below) I realised how much more dependent people are on electricity than ten years ago. Because most people have walk-around phones which need electricity, they could not call out or be called anymore. Similarly people ran out of battery on their mobiles and even the mobile towers themselves ran out of back-up batteries resulting in many areas loosing mobile coverage.
Lack of electricity also left people short of money (no credit and cash card terminals worked) and left the poor milk cows without being milked. People are not aware how dependent they are until they loose mains electricity... Hopefully some will change a few things...

On a positive note it was wonderful to see community spirit come to the fore with many people helping each other and cooperating in the face of this huge natural disaster. I specially liked the fact that there was no looting or other lawlessness.

Equinox Didjing

Our local Didgeridoo Meditation was severely affected by cyclone 'Larry' being about ten hours after the cyclone hit and most people could not make it. The house where we wanted to do it had water damage and a lot of fallen trees so we changed to another house further away from the beach were eleven of us came together for a wonderful meditation to candlelight in an unusually quiet suburb. Without power there was no electric lights and no TV's in the area so the silence was really silent and I like to think that the wider neighbourhood enjoyed our music as a bit of a change from their normal TV programs :-)
At least all participants including a couple of backpackers really enjoyed the experience, which was very relaxing despite all the excitement from the cyclone.

Sorry for my mistake in the last newsletter where I wrongly mentioned the 21st March. Some of you played on that day instead of the 20th which was the equinox. Never mind it just meant that the didj sound wave circled the planet twice :-)

We had a really good participation rate this time. Here a list of places around the world which took part in this latest global sound wave:

Cairns, Brisbane, Byron Bay and Perth in Australia; Kuala Kubu Baru and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia; Moscow in Russia; Sindal in Denmark; Tonadico and Rome in Italy; Fuchstal in Germany; Cadbury Hill Fort and Stonehenge in UK; Dudelange in Luxembourg; Tongeren in Belgium; Eindhoven in the Netherlands; Bugarach and Avignon in France; Sintra in Portugal; Corrientes in Argentinia; Real de Catorce in Mexico; Puno, Cusco and Lima in Peru; Aurora in Uruguay; Santiago in Chile; Hamilton in Bermuda; Vancouver, Lethbridge and Nelson in Canada; Denver in Colorado; Ashland and Portland in Oregon; Marblehead in Massachusetts; Chicago in Illinois; Neah Bay and Vashon Island in Washington; Schereville and Plymouth in Indiana; Lavallette in New Jersey; Western North Carolina; Rimrock in Arizona; Laramie in Wyoming and Mystic Hot Springs in Utah - all in USA and last not least Hawaii.

This is only the places I have directly heard about - sorry if I left out anyone who did inform me - and there were probably many others.
A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated and made this event such a success.
Special thanks to Skyer and Damien for organising large events (and to anyone else who got some friends to join). The image above is from the Eindhoven event - thanks Skyer. Click here to read about Skyer's account of that event and watch some more of his images or movies.

It is wonderful how our global didj community is growing and I love the thought of hundreds of people joining in synchronicity all around the world during these events! The voice of the didgeridoo is getting louder each time thanks to all of you who participate more often!

And I promise to have the regular supporters page up before the next solstice meditation. If you want to be listed as a regular supporter and have not yet told me, please email me with your location.

Please mark the 21 June on your calendars for the next Worldwide Didj Meditation when we can all didj together again. It is so cool to think of all of us joining and weaving our healing didj tunes around the world in these events....
In the meantime please spread the word about this event. Thanks

And also please participate in sending Bonzo some healing energy on the 2 April.

Feedback from the 2006 Questionnaire

It was difficult to pick the best comments since there is so much wonderful feedback every month. It is truly inspiring to hear that so many of you really love what we are doing - a big thanks to all of you.
Here just some of our favourites from a few different countries:

• Brien Porter from USA: "The didjshop is my number one favorite site because of its diversity in products not to mention the outstanding quality of those products. The information that is available on the didjshop about the didge and its characteristics and applications are unmatched. I have purchased many different items from this site and have never felt disappointment or regret. Thank you for your great service to didge players worldwide."
• Javier from Spain: "The best web about didgeridoo in internet. I have one at home and it´s incredible."
• Shane from Malaysia: "I always recommend didjshop didjeridus I have not been anywhere or seen anywhere a place that can compete with the accurate analysis of each didj . When you buy a didj from didjshop you know what you are getting and I have not found anywhere that can compete with the quality of didjeridus that come out of didjshop."
• Jack Kos from New Zealand: "This has provided me with countless hours of fascination searching through for the perfect didgeridoo for me. I am soon to order one which i believe suits me perfectly. I think i'm in love with this site and my wife agrees she says i spend more time on the site than i do with her (and she might be right!)"
• Ryan Sanders from Thailand: "I play my didgeridoo I purchased from your shop almost everyday. Everyday I experiment with different rhythms and different way of making sounds with it. I had been practicing with a bamboo didgeridoo before I had received my Didjshop didge and I had some regrets when first playing it but after playing with the overtones and experimenting with different sounds I am very happy with my purchase. Thanks for allowing me to discover how to play a real aborigine didgeridoo. I think your web site is great too."
• anonymous from Romania: "I like the way you do your business and take care of your customers. Keep up the good work."
• Max Rivera from Peru: "Didjshop. com is the very best didgeridoo's web site its complete has the store the photos the tips the forum the quality assured and a nice help if you need it. Thanks from Perú. Max"
• Bogart Parra from USA: "Very informative user friendly it truly gives you the filing that you are talking to a friend good inside points when making your purchases I'm truly impress!!!"

Please enjoy reading through some of the many other inspiring Didjshop comments.
Please also check out the many interesting answers to the question Why are you interested in Didgeridoos?

March Winner!

The winner of our A$50 March shopping voucher is Sebastian Garnier from La Rochelle in France.

Sebastian got the winning ticket through his questionnaire entry

Here is what Sebastian said about why he is interested in the didgeridoo: "Cause of the vibrations that it gives me and its from the great Aboriginal tribes"

We also like his description of didj sound healing: "it is a really great experience with a good exchange between you and the others, the sensation are amazing"

Congratulations Sebastian on your win and thanks for your comments!

Remember you all can get extra entries to our 2006 didj give-away by finding broken links on our web site or by simply participating in the many interesting discussions in our forum, whether you ask a good question or give good advice...

Aboriginal News

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

• Petrol sniffing has been in the news several times. Many Aboriginal teenagers engage in petrol sniffing as a cheap drug and the health implications are significant - prolonged use leads to severe brain damage. Now for the first time an analysis by Access Economics has revealed health and other costs of the problem are about 79 million Australian dollars. Compare this with the about 50 million dollars it would cost to roll out non-sniffable fuel to all of central Australia and that measure could save up to 30 million dollars a year.
  An inquiry into the problem heard that as long as Alice Springs has sniffable fuel, all surrounding communities have easy access to it and even major fuel distributors support the roll-out.
  However Australia’s health minister Tony Abbott has rejected the roll-out of unsniffable fuel to Alice Springs. No reasons were given but he did attack Aboriginal elders and parents instead suggesting they take petrol away from the sniffers. I wonder whether he realises that this means keeping an eye on every child and teenager for 24 hours a day and whether he realises that many Aboriginal parents have lots of children and their own health is often not to well...
  The Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women's Council responded with an invitation to Tony Abbott to live in a community for a week and keep the petrol away from the sniffers, lift them into their wheelchairs, provide food and look after them. I doubt Tony is going to take them up on that offer...
  It is a sad situation which clearly exposes the heartlessness of our present Australian government and I find it interesting that Tony Abbott expects Aboriginal parents to control their teenagers, but there is no such expectation from western parents of heroin or other drug addicts to do the same...
  This government has not provided a single good reason for not rolling out non-sniffable fuel, its better for Aboriginal communities and for the Australian tax payer so what are they waiting for??? How can they be so heartless???
• Meanwhile Oxfam has released a damning report on Aboriginal health. While there was improvements noted in infant mortality it is still double as high as in Canadian or New Zealand indigenous groups.
  The report finds that Australian indigenous health statistics are comparable to countries like Pakistan or Bangladesh and that at a time of record government budget surpluses. So all that is missing is the political will by the Australian government to do something about this unacceptable situation.
• More riots in Aboriginal communities - there were riots both in Lockhart River and in Hopevale, two Aboriginal communities on Cape York. In Lockhart River the riot was triggered by a simmering feud over a football game a month earlier. When police tried to control the situation, they were forced to retreat to their station after damage to a police vehicle. Four people and a 16 year old teenager were subsequently arrested and sent to an outstation on bail.
  A week earlier a similar scene happened in Hopevale. Greg McLean, the major of Hopevale went as far as asking police to leave unless they started taking their job of stopping violence and alcohol consumption serious. A week after the riots and without any action by police, the community introduced a night curfew on teenagers and children which is policed by 20 volunteers.
  These are serious warning signs of dysfunctional relations between our government and Aboriginal communities.
  I still believe that compulsory labelling of Aboriginal art and a ban on importing any so-called 'Aboriginal arts and crafts' for sale to tourists would make a huge economic difference to such communities. We need to address the root of these social problems, cultural dispossession and theft and the resulting economic despair.
• The discussion on Aboriginal sea rangers is continuing. There have been renewed calls from Aboriginal communities, customs and the opposition parties to the new federal
  Fisheries Minister Eric Abetz to train and employ Aboriginal rangers which know the local areas anyway. There is definitely a huge problem of Indonesian and Chinese fishermen coming into Australian waters and even to the Australian mainland while plundering Australian fish stocks. Since this practice does affect many Aboriginal communities, they would like Australian customs to act and are happy to help. While in the past many reports by Aboriginal communities have been ignored by customs, there seems to be some change in attitude.
  Hopefully the Australian government is realising that the problem will only increase if they ignore it and the new fisheries minister will hopefully have the wisdom to reverse the decision of his predecessor who refused to employ Aboriginal rangers.
  The Western Australian Bardi Jawi community has already received a patrol boat from the WA state government to help them protect their valuable trochus shell stocks. If the state government can do it, the federal government should follow suit.
• The first exhibition of Aboriginal art in the middle east is happening right now in Bahrain. It is great to see that Aboriginal art is gaining wider recognition and even the King and Queen of Bahrain have requested a private viewing. The exhibition will feature works by several Maningrida artists.
  In different news on the Aboriginal art market, a central Australian arts organisation has called for Aboriginal arts dealers to be licensed, to avoid the increasing rip-off of artists and customers. There are reports of sweatshop conditions for Aboriginal artists and also of well-known Aboriginal artists putting their name on art produced by un-known artists to increase the price.
• Tribal elder Dawn Smith from the south west Queensland Wangkumarra clan accuses mining giant Santos of stinginess. The contract between the mining giant and the Wangkumarra people expired a month ago and the mining giant is offering the Aboriginal people A$10,000 per year to renew the contract. Compare that with the billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues they get from the project and even the A$60,000 per year Santos has paid in the past is a pittance.
  We agree with Dawn that to reduce such pittance even further in the face of growing company profits is a slap in the face of Aboriginal people and an obstacle to reconciliation.
• Last not least we congratulate the Yawuru people for their successful native title claim over thousands of square kilometres around Broome. It took ten years and the cross-examinations of their elders in court was a harrowing experience. Kimberley Land Council spokesman Wayne Bergmann goes as far as calling the treatment of elders as inappropriate and offensive. However at least it was fruitful and the Yawuru now can call that land their own again.

Good luck to all of you and keep on didjing until next month ...

from Svargo and the DIDJSHOP.COM team