Chicks With Didges

Is it alright for women to play didgeridoo? If not, isn't that sexist?

If you are a didg player, check out this site - Heartland Didgeridoos. I've played their didges, and they are amazing.

Recently an American reader questioned in an email to me the tradition of women being forbidden to use the didgeridoo, suggesting that it was a social control mechanism supporting patriarchy (male dominance). This was my response.

It's important not to map western concepts of patriarchy onto Indigenous worldviews. Male power use in both ways is different.

There's good reason for women not to play didj. "On country" when you're near story places, power is amplified and things can get freaky - earthquakes, plagues and quicksands - if you do things like that. Even a foreigner playing didj in such a place could die from it. Or if it's played near an oldman or a magic man anywhere in Australia.

There is energy produced by male activity that is often described in Aboriginal Englishes as "sour". This can make women and children very sick. (It's also what makes crocodiles prefer girl meat!) At the same time, women's cultural activity (eg weaving) produces energy that can be harmful for men.

That's why there's women's business and men's business. I think that is something that gives women power, in fact. Domains of solidarity and autonomy.

Western ideals of "equality" won't stand for such a thing. But this "equality" business is not there to empower women - it is designed to strip them of their secret places and increase patriarchal control over women's business. As a result, most female domains are now dominated by men in the west. Ironic, eh?

So I think there must always be women's business, to maintain the female centres of power that are the seat of creation. I would go as far as to say that creation is beginning to unravel because women in many places are no longer singing it from their sacred areas and through sacred activity.

So, although it is in conflict with my post-structural feminist ideology (another female domain now dominated by male thinkers like myself, thanks to the mythical construct of "equality"), I will still never let my daughter play the didgeridoo. Same way I wouldn't let my son weave dillybags.

At the same time, cultures must be constantly evolving, and are shaped through the dynamic identities of the participants, but I strongly believe the old ways are often there for good reason, and should not be abandoned when they are major things like this - not without a lot of planning, debate, and with safeguards put in place by Indigenous spiritual and political leaders.

Unilateral decisions to ignore Indigenous protocols do untold damage. People really need to seek permission first, and accept the wisdom of elders.

That said, I imagine it's ok for women to play in America. But I would strongly caution against this over here, unless they have special permission or are accepted as part of a rare tradition somewhere that honours female players.

Then again, it may be that the descendants of Bronze Age Gaelic peoples also have a claim on the instrument. For more on that, see my article Didgeridoo Myths.

Or check out this link to Gender Inequality at suite 101 and start a discussion on this topic.