Yidaki Issues - Healing with the Didjeridu

It is very popular around the world to offer vibrational “didjeridu healing” by playing the instrument on chakras or towards the affected parts of sick or injured people. Some practicioners of this claim to be using a power inherent in the instrument or something from Aboriginal culture. Other didjeridu players around the world have been known to condemn this practice as fooling around in sacred Aboriginal business, or as just plain foolish.

Galarrwuy's comments. text only

When asked at the 2004 Garma Yidaki Forum about healing and the didjeridu, Galarrwuy Yunupi\u spoke of the value of discipline and the greater sacred whole that is Yol\u life. It is not just the sound that is healing, but the whole process from creation to decoration to playing to dancing to the music it is part of. Yidaki is part of the greater system of discipline that is all of Yol\u rom. To put it another way, a properly lived Yol\u life is a healthy one.

Public Yol\u healing ceremonies do involve the yidaki, but only in its normal role as accompaniment to song. The songs and dances that call forth ancestral powers closely related to the “patient” create a healing atmostphere. These powers are specific to the people and places with their kinship connections - they are not something that can be learned and taken overseas. They belong to the land they come from. Many Yol\u consider any other sort of didjeridu healing to be ridiculous, especially when mixed up with elements of other cultures.

Buwathay & Mirrwat\a - healing for Yol\u is the whole context of song, not just yidaki. text only	Buwathay - ceremonial song also heals division caused by fights and arguments. text only	Wukun stresses the health, strength and confidence gained by a yidaki player. text only

Badikupa - Djalu' plays on people's chests to strengthen their confidence and share the power of yidaki. text only	Djalu' - even those who do not fully understand Yol\u manikay are touched when they hear it. text only	Djalu' - the bringing together of people through yidaki heals the world. text only

Badikupa encourages playing yidaki on people's bodies. text only

Galarrwuy acknowledged above that further healing with the didjeridu is done, but that this was inside knowledge not to be shared in a public forum. His brother Mandawuy has also made similar comments in print. Djalu' Gurruwiwi, the best known Yol\u yidaki player and maker, sees the yidaki as both a tool of his own culture and as his Christian mission. He has been known to play on the bodies of non-Yol\u visitors with healing intent.

While opinions vary widely, the majority opinion in the Miwatj at this time seems to be that outsiders practicing healing with the didjeridu is a bit funny, but all right as long as they don't claim that they have any knowledge of or connection to Aboriginal use of the instrument. Non-Yol\u “didjeridu healers” are practicing something new based on their own experience with the instrument, not something ancient from Arnhem Land.

If you have found something useful for you, by all means continue to enjoy it, but know that it is not for or from Yol\u.

NEXT PAGE - DOES PLAYING THE DIDJERIDU CONNECT YOU TO ABORIGINAL PEOPLE?