Djalu Tribute Project
[Randy Graves currently lives in Yirrkala, NT, Australia, and is the Assistant Coordinator and Yidaki specialist at the Buku Larrnggay Mulka Centre. For those who don’t know his work, I urge you to check out his site at www.gingerroot.com. Besides his great musical CDs, he has some excellent instructional CDs on didge playing. And if you are unfamiliar with Djalu Guruwiwi, leader and elder of the Galpu clan and expert yidaki craftsman, be sure to visit his site. ]
Randy Graves writes on Serious Sticks Interactive forum (”Aboriginal Music, Culture and Instruments”), the following :
So I’ve had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while, and just recently discussed it with some of Djalu’s family because of some of other stuff going on around here. I was told, “start it right now!”
Basically, there’s been so many people who have visited Djalu’, and who have met him on his travels, many of them very moved and inspired by the experience. Many have filmed a lot of stuff with/of him, and a lot of short films have been done by these individuals. But nothing really big that captures much beyond the mundane of one quick visit. I was thinking that an interesting thing to do would be gather up heaps of amateur and semi-pro footage of Djalu in different contexts, plus new tribute clips.
Basically, this would be open to anyone who wanted to film themselves making a short statement to Djalu, thanks, tribute, sharing a story of your meeting with him, etc. It’d be a big project (assuming there’s good feedback), but could all be edited together into a rough film that would mean a great deal to him. As his family acknowledged, he’s getting older and won’t be around forever. It’d be nice to get something like this done for him before it’s too late.
The immediate goal would be just for Djalu to see it, but then it could possibly be sold, either just to cover expenses or expenses plus something for Djalu’s family.
Any takers? Contact me off list at yidaki @yirrkala.com.
Please forward to any other Didj email lists and forums.
Randy Graves
www.gingerroot.com
www.yirrkala.com
