Yorta Yorta Country

The didgeridoo originated in northern Australia where, although mainly played by men for ceremony, can be played by women for less formal occasions.  In the south, such as South Eastern Australia women are prohibited from playing.  So, although my sons and their sons have tried, with limited success to play my didge, I have never attempted it. 
This didgeridoo was a gift to me from a then sixteen-year-old girl of the Yorta Yorta tribe in the Goulburn Valley.  She participated in a work program I was managing through local government, for indigenous youth in 1995. We were developing the landscape of a tourism project built on a site important to her people.  This site, between Shepparton and Mooroopna, is where her forefathers lived after walking off the Cummeragunga Mission on the Murray River in 1939. This lovely girl went on to become a primary school teacher and raise three children to tertiary level, together with her partner, . She is now working with her own people in the support sector. This journey began  20 years ago. A quite primitive artwork, this didgerridoo was nevertheless a gift from the heart and I cherish it.