About Rripangu Yidaki

My family and I wish to live a life that we have control of, this is why we are running this business by ourselves, instead of relying on other people to do it for us. We also want to be economically self sufficient - to work for ourselves - instead of relying on Governments and their agencies to 'help' us all the time. This is the time for Yolngu to win back our pride and work ethic - cultural maintaeance.

In a world that is experiencing dramatic social change, Yolngu must be able to remember who they eare and to maintain their culture. By developing Rripangu Yidaki our children will be able to be involved in the enterprise by learning from the old people.When we are gone, our children will carry on our memories and keep our culture alive.

Rripangu Yidaki is the name of our enterprise. 'Rripangu' means lightning and all that lightning represents - it is a powerful symbol of my Galpu clan and, as lightning, I am strong and I do not fear anything.

My name is Dhangal Gurruwiwi, Djalu is my brother and together with other family members we run a small scale business from our home on the Gove peninsula and also from our homeland Gikal.

This business is based on all aspects of Yidaki, you may know it as the Didgeridoo. Djalu has built a reputation over many years as 'the best' yidaki craftsman and teacher, and his Yidaki's are known for their exceptional qualities. For years we have had many visitors coming to Arnhem Land to learn from him and my family all about the yidaki. We have travelled to Europe, the USA, Japan and the Middle East to give Yidaki demonstration and tuition.

Each year we make many Yidaki's to sell through the art centres, Internet sites and direct to visitors, we also organise the Yidaki Masterclasses which are now being held at our homeland Gikal. We also run tours on request ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. These tours are usually organised by people who have become our friends, details such as how long people stay, what they want to do and how much they pay is negotiated between us, our friend and the visitors, this is the way we are used to doing business. We now have the Lirrwi Tourism who are helping us with bookings, and organising.