Vintage
Ochre
Milingimbi Didgeridoo
Milingimbi, 1950s-1960s.
Mission produced didgeridoo whose striking feature is the artwork, a Liyagalawumirr design of the Wagilag (Wagilak) Sisters story.
The zig-zag lines represent Wititj the Olive Python at Mirarrmina.
"The narrative of the two Wagilag Sisters is an Aboriginal Creation story of deep cultural significance for the Dhuwa moiety among the Yolngu in central and east Arnhem Land. The story relates to the meeting between the human and the animal ancestors. It provides the principal aspects of Yolngu life and rituals as expressed in ceremony and song. It also tells of the flooding of the earth in the first great monsoon.The Wagilag story covers several lands and clans, and in particular a waterhole called Mirarrmina in Liyagalawumirr, the home of Wititj - one of the most powerful of the ancestral figures. The story goes that the two Wagilag sisters, one of whom was pregmant, were fleeing their home and were being followed by clansmen. On their travels they come across many animals and plants and brought them in to life by naming them. Eventually, the Wagilag sisters set up camp beside a fertile waterhole at Mirarrmina. There, one of the sisters pollutes the waterhole and the pregnant sister gives birth, which causes Wititj the python to wake up angry and insensed. Wititj creates a storm on emerging from the waterhole and attempts to wash the two Wagilag sisters in to the well with his downpour (the first monsoon). The two Wagilag sisters dance and sing sacred songs in an attempt to diffuse the situation and keep them safe, but when the sisters become too exhausted to continue, the python is able to swallow them up (including child and dog)! However, soon after, Wititj develops stomach pains and groans skywards above the land where he attracts the attention of other great snakes who also rise up in to the sky. The great snakes talk and they discover they all have different names but they wonder why the python is ill. Realising he made a mistake, Wititj lies about what he has just eaten but the pain becomes so unbearable Wititj falls back to the land and vomits up the sisters who regain their life from the stinging bites of caterpillars. Undeterred, Wititj beats them with clapsticks and eats them again. Later, the Wagilag sister's clansmen, asleep in the hollow left by the python's fall, were visited in their dreams by the sisters who revealed to the clansmen the secrets of the songs and dances which had been performed in an effort to stop the rainstorm."
The artist is difficult to ascertain as a few artists from that era painted in this manner.
Nice fading to natural ochre pigments, stringybark timber with remnants of sugarbag beeswax on mouthpiece, several fine short hairline cracks near the mouthpiece. This was bought from someone who had been advertising the piece on the internet for £8,000.00
Certificate of Authenticity included.
Traditional style sound files by Stan (using the top and bottom ends of the instrument!)
MP3
MP3
| Year... |
1950's - 1960's
|
|
Drone...
|
|
|
Overtone...
|
|
|
Mouthpiece
I/D...
|
20
mm
|
|
Bell
O/D...
|
45
mm
|
|
Length...
|
109
cm
|
|
Price...
|
£325.00
|
|
UK
Postage...
|
£19.00
|
|
Europe
Postage ...
|
£29.00
|
|
International
Postage ...
|
£45.00
|
Milingimbi, 1950s-1960s.
Mission produced didgeridoo whose striking feature is the artwork, a Liyagalawumirr design of the Wagilag (Wagilak) Sisters story.
The zig-zag lines represent Wititj the Olive Python at Mirarrmina.
"The narrative of the two Wagilag Sisters is an Aboriginal Creation story of deep cultural significance for the Dhuwa moiety among the Yolngu in central and east Arnhem Land. The story relates to the meeting between the human and the animal ancestors. It provides the principal aspects of Yolngu life and rituals as expressed in ceremony and song. It also tells of the flooding of the earth in the first great monsoon.The Wagilag story covers several lands and clans, and in particular a waterhole called Mirarrmina in Liyagalawumirr, the home of Wititj - one of the most powerful of the ancestral figures. The story goes that the two Wagilag sisters, one of whom was pregmant, were fleeing their home and were being followed by clansmen. On their travels they come across many animals and plants and brought them in to life by naming them. Eventually, the Wagilag sisters set up camp beside a fertile waterhole at Mirarrmina. There, one of the sisters pollutes the waterhole and the pregnant sister gives birth, which causes Wititj the python to wake up angry and insensed. Wititj creates a storm on emerging from the waterhole and attempts to wash the two Wagilag sisters in to the well with his downpour (the first monsoon). The two Wagilag sisters dance and sing sacred songs in an attempt to diffuse the situation and keep them safe, but when the sisters become too exhausted to continue, the python is able to swallow them up (including child and dog)! However, soon after, Wititj develops stomach pains and groans skywards above the land where he attracts the attention of other great snakes who also rise up in to the sky. The great snakes talk and they discover they all have different names but they wonder why the python is ill. Realising he made a mistake, Wititj lies about what he has just eaten but the pain becomes so unbearable Wititj falls back to the land and vomits up the sisters who regain their life from the stinging bites of caterpillars. Undeterred, Wititj beats them with clapsticks and eats them again. Later, the Wagilag sister's clansmen, asleep in the hollow left by the python's fall, were visited in their dreams by the sisters who revealed to the clansmen the secrets of the songs and dances which had been performed in an effort to stop the rainstorm."
The artist is difficult to ascertain as a few artists from that era painted in this manner.
Nice fading to natural ochre pigments, stringybark timber with remnants of sugarbag beeswax on mouthpiece, several fine short hairline cracks near the mouthpiece. This was bought from someone who had been advertising the piece on the internet for £8,000.00
Certificate of Authenticity included.
Traditional style sound files by Stan (using the top and bottom ends of the instrument!)
MP3
MP3