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Dug this up in my archives and well worth putting up on YouTube. Just watch...
Most didgeridoo aficionados know of yidaki and its place in north-east Arnhem Land culture. How yidaki is played, how it is crafted, probably some of you have been out bush with Djalu Gurruwiwi the yidaki tsar in Gove.
Fewer would have heard of mago. And fewer still would have heard of Bob Burduwal.
Mago is the didgeridoo variant made and used in the western and southern parts of Arnhem Land by Bininj people and related clans/tribes. In recent years the word "mago" has become entrenched in non-Aboriginal didgeridoo culture for the style of instrument which does not utilised the overtone note though there are actually a number of different names for the same thing used by the various clans/tribes of the area.
The late David Blanasi was the most famous exponent of the mago, his protege Darryl Dikarrnga is another.
Here, Bob Burduwal shows how he makes mago in his remote outstation in north-central Arnhem Land. In our estimation, he is the best mago craftsman in all of Arnhem Land and we've been dead keen to see him in action.
The first thing to notice is the number of holes in the ground around the outstation. Burduwal digs these holes with his bare hands. I saw him dig a new one in a matter of seconds, and because of the ease in which he did it, I thought the ground must have been soft like digging sand at the beach. Boy was I wrong! I tried it myself and stumped my fingers on HARD earth. I looked at Burduwal's hands and saw how tough his hands and fingers are, they're like steel claws. That was the first and most impressive thing I saw Burduwal do.
And what are the holes for? Burduwal places partially hollowed-out logs into the holes to stop them from moving around when he chisels. This is a great innovation and I reckon better than what the guys do over in eastern Arnhem Land. Very impressive.
And talking about chiseling, Bob makes his own chisels by banging on the ends of metal rods until they're flat, then sharpens the ends. I'm not sure how he sharpens the chisels but the ends are irregular and really SHARP. Again, very impressive.
Next, Burduwal chisels the bell end, and chisels, and chisels... he does this all day, slowly, methodically, patiently. In the HOT sun. He stops when the desired wall thickness is achieved. He doesn't use a hammer but the flat part of an axe blade.
The tree of choice for Burduwal is manbuludak which is stringybark in the Gunei language, same as what Darryl Dikarrnga speaks. It looks a bit different to the stringybark I'm used to seeing in eastern Arnhem Land but it is stringybark nonetheless. The grain seems to be curvier but maybe that's my imagination. The resonance of the wood is amazing though that could be the result of the meticulous work Burduwal does to the bore. Anyway, the wood looks different somehow to what I see in eastern Arnhem Land.
Around the outstation are many camp dogs, a favourite subject in the 3-dimensional work produced by Burduwal's wife, Lena Yarinkura. They're a fantastic couple, really hard working, friendly, great innovators in their respective craft. They are both career artists, that's what they do during the day, day in and day out.
We're keen to support Burduwal and have an arrangement where we buy and promote all his best instruments. We hope you will support us support him because he really deserves a lot more recognition for his outstanding work. You can buy his instruments elsewhere because we don't buy everything he makes, only the very best examples of his work.
The picture at the end of this clip is a sacred feathered mago made by Burduwal. Whilst it could be seen by women and children at the outstation, when I asked Burduwal about the meaning of and story for the instrument, he said he couldn't tell me. I'm satisfied with that, not everything can be known. It is the first I have seen of something like this from this part of Arnhem Land.
We're giving away one of Burduwal's mago in our next fund-raising campaign, keep an eye on our channel!
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