September 2007 Newsletter from didjshop.com

Editorial

First and foremost I like to invite you to participate in the Worldwide Didgeridoo Meditation this weekend (hoping that you read this in time). On Sunday 23 September at your local sunset, please play your didj for 45 minutes and then sit in silence for 15 minutes. It is a very pleasant and deeply relaxing activity and if you imagine that people all around the world are doing the same thing and that all together we will weave a web of didj sound around this precious planet, it is a very cool event to be involved in. So please grab one or more of your didjes on Sunday evening and join this worldwide didj circle!
And please email us with your city and country so we can add you to the list of participants in our next newsletter. Thanks

While the last newsletter was all about Aboriginal issues and nearly no didj, this one still has lots of Aboriginal issues, but also a few didj news.
The most important didj news are ninety new didjes and a massive eighty didjes on a special discount for a limited time (see below).

As for Aboriginal news, I need to apologise for not being ale to present the promised article on the governments intervention in Aboriginal communities. That article has to wait because a very important event occurred this week with the signing of an agreement between Gumatj elder Galarrwuy Yunupingu and the federal government and it took a lot of time to get more details on that one. Please find some of those details and possible implications in below article.

Thanks to those of you who emailed me about the story on child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities in the last newsletter. Sorry for not replying to everyone personally, but each one of those emails was read and very much appreciated. Special thanks to Richard for pointing out that in the US child sexual abuse is in plague proportions with one in four girls and one in five boys being sexually abused by the age of 18!!! Richard might be right with his suggestion that Australian statistics might be similar and that the situation in Aboriginal communities might not be such an exception. Richard also makes a valid point when he suggests that the problem might be projected onto one group as a scape goat so the rest of us don't have to confront the realities of what is happening in "our" world. Thanks Richard for those thoughts.
Since the last newsletter a couple of Aboriginal males have been sentenced for child sexual abuse and we do hope that this will set an example. However what is really needed in our opinion is that some of the non-Aboriginal perpetrators be sentenced so that a clear message is given that their behaviour is not accepted either and that Aboriginal people do not believe that white fellows get away with it.

In very sad news world famous Arnhem land didgeridoo player M. Mununggurr (names of deceased Aboriginal people should not be uttered as to allow them to rest in peace) seems to have become the latest victim of the terrible combination of alcohol and depression. According to our source, M*lk**ng* was found dead on 15 July, shortly before the last Garma festival, he apparently hung himself. Let us hope that at least some young Aboriginal people will be inspired to keep away from alcohol and drugs by this shocking and sad incidence...

As regular readers would know I do not like to end with a bad story - so here a really good didj story (thanks to Gary and Kati for emailing it to me). It is about an Iranian didj player meeting an Israeli flute player bridging political divides. This is what music is about and why I love the idea of the Worldwide Didj Circle.
If you have any good didj story (maybe about something you are doing with the didj), please do share it with us and our readers, thanks.

There are other things I'd like to share but it is high time this newsletter goes out so some of you still get it before the Equinox Didj Meditation.
I hope you will join us for that :-)

Enjoy the rest of this newsletter....

Svargo

New Didjes and Specials

NEW DIDJES!!!
We have just uploaded 90 new didjes to our virtual shop, each one as usual with individual images and most with individual sound files.
In this new batch of didjes are many incredibly light ones with over one third being under two kilos. This means there are many perfect Traveller Didjes and Healing Didjes. Most of my personal didjes are really light ones as I really like to be able to move around when healing or doing group meditations (like the Worldwide Didj Meditation this Sunday).
In this batch are several new Bark Didjes. They look great and are the closest thing to playing music on a tree ;-) . Bark didjes are another Didjshop invention, just like the didjes with a twin stubble (they have a short section of a second stem) of which there is also several new ones in this batch - you can find them in our Unusual Shapes section.
Kevan from the Muddie Muddie Clan in Victoria came up for a visit and brought us a big bunch of his Mallee didjes with beautiful and intricate burned designs. We get these Burnt Didjes only once every year or two, so if you like the looks of the artwork on the image on the right, do not wait too long before you do some window shopping.
As a valued newsletter reader, you can browse through our new stock. This is possible only from this newsletter link and is not available for normal visitors to our website.

SPECIALS!!!
Some of you have noticed that we did not have any special didj offers this year yet, so we decided to offer a 15% discount on 80 didjes. Many of these are incredible specimens and exceptional musical instruments and this is a rare opportunity to get them substantially cheaper. So check these beauties out, with that many you are sure to find one you like - and do not wait too long this special offer is available only until 22 October.
While we are at it, we also offer a 10% discount on 99 canvas paintings, shields and spears. This offer is also limited until 22 October.

This might be the perfect opportunity for you to do some early Christmas shopping :-).

Yunupingu Signs 99-Year Lease Agreement

In a highly controversial and surprising move, former Australian of the year Galarrwuy Yunupingu has this week signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to negotiate a 99-year lease with the Australian federal government. The agreement will give control over traditional Gumatj land to the federal government for the next 99 years.
To us this smells of very clever politics on behalf of the federal government, but we very much doubt that it is good policy. It is certainly a major coup for the federal government to get such a vocal critic and high profile Aboriginal leader to support their policy.
The agreement comes after a secret meeting held last month between federal indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, Queensland Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson and Galarrwuy Yunupingu. That meeting was held one week after this years Garma festival in August on the very same ground.

At the festival Galarrwuy resigned as the chairman of the Northern Land Council and gave a scathing attack on the federal government and it's Aboriginal intervention policy, saying that he is "sick and tired of governments using indigenous Australia as a political football" and "Aborigines should be left to shape their own policies and future" and that the federal governments intervention is "is worrying, sickening and rotten".
It seems that Galarrwuy had a major change of mind and the question on everyone's mind is why?

After the signing Galarrwuy suggested that the government create a senior elders group to advise the government on the management of the land.

While the details of the agreement are not available and indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has publicly stated that "money was not the motivating factor behind Mr Yunupingu's decision" we understand that Yunupingu's community will receive several million dollars to allow individuals to buy their own homes under the agreement.
It also remains to be seen how the other NT Aboriginal leaders view Yunupingu's secret meeting so soon after Mal Brough disappointed many respected Aboriginal leaders at the festival by pulling out at the last minute and consequently denying them the opportunity to speak to him.
While Northern Territory Attorney-General Syd Stirling publicly suggested that Yunupingu had the full agreement of his community, there is some gossip that that is simply not true and at least some people are quite opposed to giving the government control.

While many people wonder whether Yunupingu has sold out, we would reserve judgement. We believe that Galarrwuy would have done the best he could for his people. We assume that Mal Brough would have confronted him with the certainty that his land would be taken over by the federal government anyway as part of the federal government intervention - at least for five years and that this could be easily extended. Mel Brough (or more likely his department staff) would have offered Galarrwuy several sweeteners for signing the agreement.
Being faced with loosing his land anyway or signing a 99-year lease, Galarrwuy probably negotiated for as much compensation as he could and reluctantly signed. This is just our assumption and only the full text of the agreement and the eventual lease will tell. We just hope the Gumatj will get a much better deal than the Tiwi Islanders, who signed the first such deal, apparently in exchange for basic infrastructure that non-Aboriginal Australian communities get for free.
While believing that Galarrwuy did the best he could, we are seriously concerned that this deal could be the beginning of the end of Aboriginal communities and culture as we know them and as they have existed for tens of thousands of years.
This deal is likely to force Aboriginal people to embrace western notions of individual land and house ownership. The resulting fragmentation of Aboriginal society has the potential to destroy whatever is left of Aboriginal cultural community. Most western people would have no idea of the severity and far-reaching nature of this impact. Their society, to whom land is sacred and to be cared for and to whom the notion of owning land is totally foreign and disrespectful to that land, is likely to be threatened in its very roots by individual ownership of land and houses. There are already frequent family feuds in Aboriginal communities and individual house and land ownership is only going to make them worse and more frequent
Another possible effect might be an Aboriginal sub-prime mortgage market :'( with banks auctioning house blocks in Aboriginal communities and non-Aboriginal people moving in...
There are many other issues to talk about regarding the government intervention and 99-leases and I will certainly address some more of them next month.

Worldwide Visitors and Customers

Every month we get lots of great feedback from our customers. Here just half a dozen of the over twenty we received last month:

• Paul from USA: "This didj could not have been better made. Delivery was prompt and the packaging was impeccable. Not a scratch."
• Anonymous from Norway: "The Didjes are of the very best quality I feel when you buy a concert class didj from the didjshop you get a concert class didj:I remember when a ordered my didj's the folks from didjshop rang me up in Norway just to check details.Now that's what I call service"
• Donna from United Kingdom: "Excellent service, great communication & tracking service, knew the minute the didge touched down in UK, was pleased as punch when opening the excellently wrapped didge as seemed better than the pics and the sound quality was spot on"
• Don Landrigan from Japan: "It is a beautiful instrument. Words fail me... I am looking forward to be able to play it (I bought the DVD, & I'm working on it!)...
  Additionally, I requested a 'darker didj bag' - and got just that! It's beautiful - and the kangaroo motif on it stands out: exactly what an Aussie living in Japan wants!"
• Gregg Nardozza from USA: "Everyone at the didjshop are very courteous and efficient to deal with. A first-class establishment!"
• Anonymous: "Extremely pleased with the quality and workmanship. Shipping was faster than expected"

You can read the rest and many more here.

We also get well over a hundred wonderful comments from the tens of thousands of visitors to our website every month. Here just a few of those:

• James from USA: "Any time i google info about didjes the best results always come from didjshop.com"
• Anonymous from Peru: "The most interesting of all (really); lots of info and it seems that you guys are pretty committed with it"
• Keith from Italy: "Didjshop is by far the best and most informative website about didjes i've found. I enjoy reading about the history and other information pertaining to didjes and the Aboriginal people. You guys rock!"
• Jef from Australia: "Very genuine and always informative (and passionate). It is the obvious passion and respect of this site that makes it so worthwhile."
• Wylliam Noel from Belgium: "Your site is the most beautiful and the best I've seen on the web and you're probably the best the explanations about every didjes are well done. And I congratulate your site!!!!"
• Marius Monsø from Norway: "The nr 1 for me. you are a great site:)"
• Daryl from USA: "Your website is by far the friendliest and best organized. With the most useful information."

Thanks to all visitors and customers for their great comments and feedback.
You can read more Didjshop comments here.

September Winner!

The winner of our September A$50 shopping voucher is:

Geoffrey Mitchell from Sydney, Australia.
Geoffrey automatically received his winning ticket when he ordered two didgeridoos from us for his sister. We are sorry to say that we have not received any comments from Geoffrey to share with you. We hope that Geoffrey will still appreciate winning this shopping voucher and maybe he will give us some feedback :-)

Aboriginal News

In this month Aboriginal news there is a story on the cane toad, symbol of white stupidity, the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous people, the reason why magnificent Aboriginal rock carvings were destroyed and Australia's quirkiest Land rights case so far:

• The advance of the dreaded cane toad across the northern territory is having significant effects on wildlife and Aboriginal bush food supplies. For those of you who do not know the story of the cane toad, here a brief history: Early this century here in Far North Queensland sugar cane was grown on a large scale on coastal land. The early farmers had a severe problem with cane beetles devouring the tops of the cane plants. Since the cane beetles were also found in Africa but were not in plague proportions there, it was assumed that the cane toad which was living in Africa as well, but not here, might be the solution. So the cane toad was introduced to Far North Queensland to control the cane beetle (possibly the first biological pest control). The newly introduced cane toads had a really good time in tropical North Queensland and they grew and multiplied. By the time people realised that the cane toad could not possibly jump so high as to have any chance of catching cane beetles, it was too late and the new immigrant went on a rampage feeding on other insects in competition with many far more beautiful Australian amphibians.
  However the biggest problem turned out to be the cane toad's own defences against predators, it's poison glands. For Australian marsupial carnivores, birds, snakes and big lizards the cane toad was an easy prey, except they had no idea that the toad was so poisonous that they did not survive the meal. On the quirkier side some desperate people are said to use cane toad poison as a hallucinating drug and dogs are known to lick the toads (they foam from the mouth and go silly).
  Well the cane toad has conquered more and more Australian land since it's introduction and has arrived in the Northern Territory a few years ago. I remember to have had the dubious honour to discover the first ever cane toad in Katherine gorge in 2001 and having been surprised that the National Parks ranger did not want us to kill or remove the specimen.
  Now a study has found that the cane toad is responsible for widespread localised extinctions of the yellow spotted monitor (and I am sure several other predators). Traditional owners told the researchers that they have not seen a goanna in the Arafura swamp for over two years (the Arafura swamp is where the fabulous 'Ten Canoes' movie was shot)). For the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities this means the loss of a major food source. Goanna to Aboriginal people is like chicken or beef to western society. Imagine over 90% of cows or chicken disappearing...
  
• The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has just been passed by the UN general assembly after nearly three decades of negotiations. 143 countries voted for the declaration, eleven abstained and only four voted against it, the US, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. It's embarrassing that our Australian government not just opposed such a basic declaration, but seemingly got Canada to oppose it, too. The Canadian Government actively supported the declaration for 23 years, but then changed its position in 2006 just one day after a visit by Australian Prime Minister John Howard; strange...
  Here the three most contentious issues in the declaration:
  - states shall give legal recognition and protection to lands, territories and resources traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired by Indigenous peoples.
  - just, fair and equitable compensation, for their lands and resources which have been confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and informed consent
  - to consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous peoples...to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilisation or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.
  The Australian government claimed that these and other provisions in the declaration "would provide rights to a group of people which would be to the exclusion of others" and "would provide one group with the power to veto Government decisions". Since the declaration is not law and only aspirational, those statements are clearly incorrect, but then they come from a government that cannot even say 'Sorry' for all the wrongs done to Aboriginal people by past generations.
  We wonder whether the fact that most of the world's untapped natural resources are found on Indigenous lands has anything to do with the 'no' vote by Australia and the US, both governments which are heavily influenced by big mining and energy companies.
  
• This leads to the next story. Regular readers will remember our article on the oldest known library, the rock carvings and petroglyphs of the Western Australian Burrup peninsular. These are now protected by Australian National Heritage listing (legislation was finally passed in June/July this year), but only after thousands of them have been destroyed as recent as early this year to make way to the large natural gas processing facility by Woodside Petroleum. At the time the federal environment minister refused the National Heritage listing that has now been granted. We wondered whether the Federal Environment minister had put big business before the environment.
  At the last APEC conference in Sydney the Australian government has now signed a 35 billion dollar deal with China over the natural gas from that very Woodside project on the Burrup peninsular, which seems to confirm our suspicions.
  However the biggest potential danger form the project is not the thousands of rock carvings and petroglyphs already destroyed and removed, but the likelihood of fumes from the plants operation damaging the remainder of this unique heritage. All that would be needed is for Woodside to relocate it's operations to the mainland as other resource companies have already done voluntarily...
  
• In other news the Warumungu people have signed a rather unusual native title agreement with the Northern Territory government over the township. The out of court settlement gives the Warumungu people land rights over Tennant Creek and surrounding areas, but at the same time the Warumungu accept that native title to be extinguished over the town centre and some surrounding areas (to allow for the towns future expansion) in return for unspecified compensation.
  The Warumungu retain freehold title to areas north of the Northern Territory township, including the famous Devil's Marbles area, however that land is to become a park allowing public access.
  While we welcome the continued public access to the famous Devil's Marbles, we do question whether the Warumungu got the short end of the stick in those negotiations and how much of the promised government compensation is for infrastructure other Australian communities get for free...
• The Patter community in the Gibson Desert had a great idea. They painted Aboriginal art onto bonnets collected from car wrecks. It took just minutes to sell all of them at the recent 'Desert Mob' exhibition in Alice Springs.
  What a wonderfully creative idea! It is ideas and initiatives like this that need to be encouraged and supported. Maybe there is an opportunity to paint whole cars. I have thought of that before and the only reason I have not done it with mine is because I drive what they call a 'bomb' here in Australia (my car is nearly twenty years old and not in mint condition).

Keep on didjing until next month and please participate in the next Worldwide Didj Circle on 23 September...

from Svargo and the DIDJSHOP.COM team