January 2007 Newsletter from didjshop.com

Editorial

Welcome to 2007 and the Chinese year of the pig. 2007 started with strange weather, good news and a spectacular comet. Giving us a stark reminder of the threats of climate change, Europe has witnessed a total confusion of animals and plants by the very late start of winter there and here our thunderstorm season is just starting - about two month late and this is the first time that at the end of January the termites have not yet swarmed. The thunderstorms are wonderful for the trees and I love thunderstorms, but unfortunately it results in clouds every evening blocking the view of comet McNaught for us, which I'd love to finally see with my own eyes. I've included an image below of what might be the best comet in a life-time. Let us hope that this magnificent heavenly visitor is a sign that 2007 will bring light and beauty to our lives.

The new year started also with very good news for our embattled environment: US democrats are pushing to remove subsidies for fossil fuels and redirect them to renewable energies (in my view the single most important measure to reduce CO2). BP is investing heavily in renewable energies and plans to build over 4GW of wind power stations in the next five years. California CO2 reductions.

2007 also started with what might be the best news for Aboriginal justice, the charging of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley for the manslaughter of Mulrinji in the Palm Island watch house over two years ago. This decision is so important because it might signal a change in the difficult relations between police and Aboriginal people. Only if individual police officers are held responsible for their actions and punished if they misuse their authority will we have a reliable and trustworthy police service. Otherwise we are in danger to return to the police state Queensland was thirty years ago and all police officers would suffer from the fallout from the unacceptable excesses of a few colleagues. Please see the Aboriginal news section below for more information on this important story.

While on Aboriginal news, in the last newsletter we asked all of you to write in support of the Marijuana petroglyphs but the actual article got lost from the final newsletter. We apologise for this and bring the article to you below. Please do take a minute to write to the new Australian environment minister to preserve these ancient rock paintings and the world's oldest known petroglyphs.

Due to my trip to Europe late last year and so many of you buying lots of didjes before Christmas our online stock currently is the lowest since over five years. So right now we are busy getting lots of new didjes ready and the first ones should be online within a couple of weeks. I do need to point out that our lowest ever online stock still gives you a much larger selection than any of our many competitors, not to mention that you'll get better value for money and a real Aboriginal made didj!

Which brings me to the new web pages we created:
Firstly we have created a new customer feedback section (see below) and secondly we have created a newsletter archive. We had quite a few enquiries about past newsletter issues, so now you'll be able to browse all of them right back to the first Didjshop newsletter in July 2002! We trust you'll enjoy this new resource; there are many interesting articles in these previous issues.

We also started a new questionnaire for 2007 and will be giving away yet another amazing didj. Please answer the 2007 questionnaire for your chance to win that didj or one of the monthly shopping vouchers. Below you can see some results from last year's questionnaire and see who won the 2006 prize didj.

The December 21st Worldwide Didgeridoo Meditation was probably not quite as big as the September one, but there were still plenty of participants. Here a list of people who kindly notified us of where they participated:
Russ and friends in Perth, WA, Australia; Mark & Peter in Durham, UK; Oliver in Germany; Jackie in jacksonville, texas; Pamela in Seattle, Washington; Dan, Emily, Olivia and Ron in Winchester, TN; Christopher in Owego, New York; Jason in Omaha, Nebraska; Kyle in Napa, Ca; Deanna in Sykesville, Maryland; Alex in Bay Village and Geoff & friends in Columbus, both in Ohio; Chris in Lewiston, Idaho; Barbara in Wimberley, Texas; Nicole in White River Junction, Vermont; Frank in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Roger in New Albany, Indiana; John in Boston, Massachusetts; Paula on her farm in Iowa and Jerry with his son flying from California to New Jersey, all in USA.

Together with the by now over 50 regular supporters (in over twenty countries!) and other supporting groups there were still about a hundred places around the world where didjes were droning for the earth and here in Kuranda we certainly had a great time with about twenty participants in a very beautiful spot.
The next one is for the equinox on 21st March 2007. Please mark it on your calendars, tell your friends and become part of the worlds biggest didj circle :-)
please email us with the city and country where you will be participating, thanks

PS: hope you enjoy the photos of the visiting wildlife :-)

Enjoy the rest of this newsletter...

Svargo

Customer Questionnaire Results available online

As many of you would be aware we are currently running a customer questionnaire where we ask our customers for feedback on their purchase and their new didj. We have now made everyone's answers available online. We are pleased with the very high satisfaction levels of our customers - for example 82.7% of respondents gave our service a 10 out of 10; a further 10.6% rated it as 9 out of 10; 5% rated it as 8 out of 10 and 1.7% rated it as 7 out of 10! No-one rated it as less than seven out of ten!
Similarly 94.4% of customers rated their didjshop didjes as good or better than they expected.
These are excellent results and we are stoked to hear them

If you wonder how Didjshop didjes compare with other didjes sold elsewhere, please check out how our customers compare their new Didjshop didjes with others they have played:

• Bryan from United Kingdom: "Difficult to compare as all Didjshop sticks are very well described before purchase, but much better than my other non Didjshop sticks."
• Mario Alleyne from Canada: "From every Didj I have ever seen mine is by far the best. I have had many people admire it!"
• Larry from Australia: "Much better sound quality and finish."
• Lars from Luxembourg: "Much better than my others. Sound is absolutely great. Love this didj"
• Denny Simpson from USA: "As good as my prize Badipuka that cost 5 times more."

Please feel free to check out a few more customer comments on this new customer testimonial page!

If you ever bought a didj from Didjshop.com, please participate in this customer survey for your chance to win a fantastic Brad Gosam didj valued at over A$1500.

Marijuana Petroglyphs

Marijuana is the Aboriginal word for the site of the biggest collection of rock carvings in the world. Marijuana is on the Burrup peninsular in the north of West Australia. Marijuana is so special that it should be named next to the great pyramids or Stonehenge. In fact it is six times older than the former and eight times older than the latter. This is the oldest and the most extensive collection of petroglyphs and standing stones anywhere in the world and probably also the oldest. There are thousands of them; it's like a giant ancient library. To construct more petrochemical industry there is like shifting part of Stonehenge to mine coal.

In the eighties about 2000 Petroglyphs were removed from their original sites into a 'temporary storage area' without any consultation of Aboriginal elders by Woodside Petroleum to construct facilities and a pipeline to exploit the Northern Shelf natural gas field. Now Woodside wants to remove more petroglyphs and destroy more standing stones to expand their facilities.
While other petrochemical companies have opted to build their facilities further north or south, Woodside insists on destroying and removing more of the petroglyphs. Several sites were bulldozed in mid May. There is not even any comprehensive government inventory of this ancient library and sacred place. Woodside has recently signed a 25 year contract with China over the supply of 3.3 million tonnes of liquefied gas per year. This will need massive infrastructure and ten thousands of workers and if placed on Burrup undoubtedly would destroy large areas of this unique site.

It seems like the Western Australian and Australian government would love to allow Woodside to destroy this unique Australian heritage (even though the former would not even get any royalties). However some loud voices have been speaking up and more and more are doing so. Not only the local Aboriginal tribes, but also other local residents, several Australian and international Archaeologists and other scientists, the World Monument Fund, The National Trust of Western Australia, the National Native Title Tribunal, the Australian Heritage Council, the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations, the Australian Greens, over twenty thousand Australian individuals (if you are an Australian, please add your voice) and hopefully many more people and organisations soon. The International Sacred Sites Trust nominated the Dampier rock art precinct as one of the ten most threatened sacred sites in the world. All we need now is prospective tourists to speak up, which is you.

In early December 2006 Senator Rachel Siewert, Dr Carmel Lawrence MP and Peter Andren MP have lodged an application for emergency heritage listing of the Dampier Rock Art Precinct with the federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Ian Campbell, who rejected their application two days before Christmas. Interestingly this was one of his last decisions as he has been replaced by Malcolm Turnbull in a cabinet reshuffle.

So we wish to ask all of you to please send an email directly to the Australian Minister for the Environment, the honourable Malcolm Turnbull, and ask him to please reverse his predecessor's decision and to preserve the Dampier rock art on the Burrup peninsular, the site of probably the world's oldest petroglyphs. If he gets a few hundred emails from around the world, he might just realise that the destruction of this ancient Australian Heritage could damage Australia's international standing and he might agree with the emergency listing.

We want to ask all of our Australian readers to please register their opposition to the Pluto project on the Burrup peninsula at Getup.org which has already collected 20,000 signatures. If you are not living in Australia, please email your Australian friends with this link (www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveOurHeritage.asp?campaign_id=61) and ask them to make a submission.

These Aboriginal rock carvings and standing stones are eight times older than Stonehenge! Would anyone in England allow the destruction or relocation of some of the stones at Stonehenge to make space for a coal mine? They are six times older than the pyramids; would anyone sacrifice a corner of the pyramids to sink process oil? No-one would even dream of such sacrilege and we need to speak up about such madness being considered here in Australia - and not just considered, but only in need of one more approval! We need to demand at least a proper study and inventory of what is there before we allow part of it to be destroyed or moved!

For detailed background information and a timescale, check out this site. This is a great rundown of the history of the Burrup peninsular!

You can also find links to some detailed scientific studies and a video (only if you are lucky enough to have broadband) at www.burrup.org.au.

Please act now to help save this global treasure from destruction, it's only one email for you but it could change the future for what is probably the world's oldest library :-)
thanks

2006 Questionnaire

Our 2006 questionnaire is closed and and our 2007 questionnaire is up and running! So please feel free to answer this year's questions for your chance at yet another magnificent didj.

And here a few initial results from last years questionnaire which was filled in by over two thousand people:

The most famous didj player during December was Xavier Rudd, but overall David Hudson is the best known didgeridoo player in 2006 by a large margin. We will analyse the data and list the top ten or twenty people in another newsletter.

Overall 58.5% of respondents already own a didgeridoo, but only 53.5% of those own a termite hollowed didj.
Only 25.6% of all questionnaire respondents were female, but only 29% of those female respondents own a didgeridoo, compared with a 68.6% didj ownership for male respondents.
It looks like the didj is still very much a male instrument.

Please check out these wonderful visitor comments we received last month:

• Fred Ashplant from USA: "I have never found a more reliable business on the web. The Didjshop has provided me with the best quality instruments imaginable and the service has been friendly alert and efficient. The staff has gone out of their way to be helpful and to make my shopping experience enjoyable. The web site is interesting and informative and serves to raise awareness to the issues confronting Australia and the rest of the world. You run a truly excellent business. Keep up the good work many thanks."
• Tiffany Lepard from USA: "I sent the didjshop an email to find the best didj for me considering my playing level and price range. I got FANTASTIC feedback the next day. There is no better service than that!"
• Carlos from Spain: "Great. It really feels a service done by heart."
• Anonymous: "Very good I got one of the DVDs and that helped so much I learned how to circular breath.(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:"
• Christopher Weber from USA: "A very "complete" didgeridoo shop. Outstanding information available on the site. Many excellent links. It's how I learned about the didgeridoo meditation that I participate in. Keep up the great work!!!"
• Jorge Rodríguez from Chile: "It's a very good page because: 1. You have lots of languages. 2. It doesn't matter if you are not an expert on plying the Didj the page is for all people. 3. You are very clear on what you explain for example I learnt how to play the Didj with this page."
• Anonymous: "Really cool website. It is always a pleasure to buy didjes here and for the 2 I bought I am really happy :)"

If you wish to read more Didjshop comments, didj healing comments, didj meditation comments and many others, check out our very extensive visitor comment section.

Thanks to all of our customers and visitors for answering the 2006 questionnaire and for all your wonderful feedback.

2006 Prize Didj Winner!

This is the big draw everyone was waiting for!

Thousands of entries with several people amassing over 50 entries by buying several didjes and/or by answering the questionnaire, finding errors on our website, linking to didjshop.com and posting to our Forum!

The lucky winner of our December 2006 price didj is: Drew Hutchinson from Berkeley in California, USA

Drew had this to say about his Didjshop didj that got him the winning entry: "Good sound and quality for price - Didj sound is excellent, good quality on finish. I am very pleased" and here is his feedback about Didjshop.com: "Really like shopping with you. great follow up and good products. I would buy again"
Congratulations, Nigel and thanks for your comments you.
The winning didj is on its way to Berkeley right now. Drew promised to send us a picture and a few lines when it arrives and we will share that with you in the next newsletter.

In the meantime we have a brand new 2007 didgeridoo competition started and over two hundred of you have already discovered the 2007 questionnaire and filled it out. What are you waiting for, the earlier you fill it in the higher are your chances to win one of the eleven monthly shopping vouchers!

We are also still running our separate customer survey were we will be giving away another great didj. So if you ever bought a didj from Didjshop.com and have not yet filled out our customer questionnaire, please do so for your chance to win another great Brad Gosam didj.

Aboriginal News

Last month Aboriginal news has some interesting and even several positive stories:

• The top story is again the death in custody which happened on Palm Island over two years ago (see our December 2004 newsletter). Mulrunji died less than an hour after suffering four broken ribs, a black eye, a haemorrhaging pancreas and a liver split in two. Surveillance video later showed that Mulrunji called out for help and was in terrible pain, calls that were ignored by police in the watch house.
  A detailed inquiry by Queensland coroner Christine Clements found in late September that the "actions of Senior Sergeant Hurley caused the fatal injuries", that the sergeant's failure to check on the prisoner was "callous and deficient" and that Hurley "responded with physical force against Mulrunji while Mulrunji was still on the floor".
  However despite this clear evidence, the Director of Queensland's Public Prosecution, Leanne Clare, announced in December that Sergeant Chris Hurley would not be charged, claiming Mulrunji died "in a terrible accident" and that a fall down the stairs was the only explanation for his death. This caused a predictable outcry and the Queensland government agreed under pressure to initiate a re-view of that decision. Initially the review was to be done by Mr Shanahan, a retired judge of the Queensland District Court. However when it was revealed that he recommended Leanne Clare's appointment in 2000, Mr Shanahan resigned and the review was carried out by former New South Wales chief justice Sir Laurence Street.
  Sir Laurence considered the evidence for three weeks, disagreed with Leanne Clare's findings and found there is sufficient evidence to charge Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley.
  We very much welcome this finding and the Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine decision to instruct the Crown Solicitor to initiate prosecution proceedings.
  As the next news item shows how important community trust into the police force is and how important it is that our police officers are accountable and can be trusted.
  Sadly the story does not end here. Before Sir Laurence released his findings, Patrick Bramwell, who was in the watch house during Mulrunji's death and a key witness, died on Palm Island on the 16th of January. Andrew Boe, the lawyer for Mulrunji's family, claims that Patrick Bramwell may have committed suicide due to police pressure on him not to testify. We are shocked by this revelation and hope that this allegation will also be independently investigated.
• Meanwhile on the 9th of January in Aurukun, another FNQ Aboriginal community, 22-year old Warren Bell was arrested for assault. On the same day he was flown with the Royal Flying Doctor service to the Cairns hospital because according to police "he fell ill while in custody". However the local Aboriginal people believed that he was mistreated while in custody. 300 of them rioted and attacked the police station shortly after Warren was flown out of the community. One of the policemen fired is personal (but unregistered) hand gun to scare away the angry mob.
  Warren later claimed in media interviews that he was beaten in custody, while police claim that his injuries were sustained before he was arrested.
  Another riot happened the very next day in the community of Maninggrida in the Northern Territory: after the arrest of an Aboriginal man, a mob of about 100 people attacked the police station and peace was restored only after the invention of traditional elders.
  What seems obvious is that because the Palm Island police officer seemed to be able to get away with assault and man slaughter, Aboriginal communities have very little trust in their police force.
  We fully support the call by Brisbane-based Aboriginal activist Sam Watson for a summit between police and Queensland Aboriginal leaders to restore trust.
  We also call on the Queensland government to re-instate the Aboriginal affairs portfolio which was abolished immediately after the last state election.
  However a truly independent inquiry into police activities is what is most important. Our society cannot risk the good reputation of the vast majority of our police force and we need to ensure that any possible irregularities by individual officers are thoroughly investigated (including the officers involved in the initial police internal investigation).
• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Tom Calma, is calling for changes to the native title claim process. In the last 15 years, about 90 native title claims have been settled. Sounds pretty good until you realise that there are about 600 native title claims which are still not settled. Tom Calma says that the huge backlog is denying Indigenous people justice and stops them from earning any income from their land. Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, claims a shortage of anthropologists is to blame and just leaves it at that. Whatever the cause, surely the government could do something about the problem and has at least a moral obligation to not let Aboriginal people wait for years or even decades to get their land back.
• One of the lucky ones ate the Githabul people of northern New South Wales, who just won their native title claim covering 6,000 square kilometres just south of the Queensland border including national parks and forests like the Border Ranges and Toonumbar National Park. Part of the deal is Aboriginal employment in the national parks, which should enhance the experience for tourists to those parks who will be able to learn more about the Aboriginal culture of the area.
  Wonderful news for all involved!

Keep on didjing until next month ...

from Svargo and the DIDJSHOP.COM team