Yorta Yorta man Uncle Phil Murray offers workshop to learn how to make and play a didgeridoo

Yorta Yorta man Uncle Phil Murray will teach the basics of crafting a Yidaki, which is what the didgeridoo is referred to in eastern Arnhem Land and the Northern Territory.

For cultural reasons, the workshop is open only to men and boys.

Uncle Phil said crafting a didgeridoo was a good place to start as there's a lot of Aboriginal people who don't know much about their culture.

"I put my hand up to do a didgeridoo workshop and teach the fathers and the sons because it's a men's business, so we just encourage the men to come along and have a go and then they can have it at the end of the day," Uncle Phil said.

"It was handed down through generations, these didgeridoos were not from this area, they're from the Top End and introduced, we never had them down here.

"There's no dot work from this way, so there's a lot of stuff that's not from this area.

"A lot of people still use stuff from other places and the didgeridoo is a ceremonial thing, you use it for ceremonies, dances and now they're used for music in bands and relaxation. It's good for breathing, circular breathing and all that stuff.

"This is the start we're trying to get a stepping stone, we're trying to start them somewhere.

"The didgeridoo is a good place to start because they can learn from it."

"From here on, from the didgeridoo, you'd take them bush and teach them basic skills from the bush like medicine and bush tucker."

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Uncle Phil has offered various workshops and said they had been well received.

"When they come out of the workshops they're really proud and they've got the basic skills to learn the didgeridoo which gets them going and they just want to keep going with it," he said.

"All the didgeridoos I use, they're all mallee. You have to know what you're looking for otherwise you're just cutting down the whole forest trying to find it.

"You have to look where the ants are moving and there's dirt coming out the hole at the end, there's a few factors that you look for.

"I just want to encourage our mob to come on down and have a look and get involved in a lot of the cultural stuff that's going on around town - we've got a lot of good artists."

The workshop runs from 10am to 12pm at the Burraja Indigenous Cultural and Environmental Discovery Centre on Gateway Island.

Those who wish to attend the workshop can book a ticket online at eventbrite.com.au/e/introduction-to-yidaki-didgeridoo-tickets-198105156857.

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