The Myth of Creation of Man and Woman In the beginning, the great Spirit Biama created man and woman and they then, through their songs, created the souls of animals and birds, and through the sound of didgeridoo also their real forms...

Didgeridoo – Yedaki
The didgeridoo was born in the northern part of Australia – the Northern Territory. It is basically a hollow branch which is played with freely vibrating lips. In the northeastern part of the Arnhem Land, the Australian Aboriginal people have kept the tradition of producing and playing the didgeridoo for thousands of years. Members of the Yolngu clan, as well as most of the other natives, call the instrument Yedaki. The name “didgeridoo” was probably coined by the first white settlers who tried to interpret the sound of the instrument: di-ta-ri-doo.

Some believe the indigenous Australians have used the didgeridoo for over 40 thousand years. The oldest records in form of cave paintings in the Northern Territory are 2000 years old.
Eucalyptus trees, used for Yedaki, are naturally hollow thanks to termites living in the ground under them. They lay eggs inside the trunks and their larves then feed on the inside of a tree. The majority of the Yolngu produces the Yedaki from bloodwood, woolybutt and stringybark eucalyptus.
An Aboriginal maker of the Yedaki has a sense for finding a tree that is to become an instrument. He then removes bark and taps the surface to find out whether the trunk is properly hollow. An experienced Yolngu is able to decide from the sound of the tapping what the hollow of the tree looks like and where precisely to cut.