Handmade in the Pacific

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Series exploring traditional artefacts in Australia, Rurutu, New Zealand and Hawaii.

Documentary series which gives viewers a rare and intimate insight into the creative processes and cultural significance of traditional artefacts in Australia, Rurutu, New Zealand and Hawaii.

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Handmade in the Pacific: Yidaki

Alex Brisland

Sam Frederick

Russell Barnes

Clare Burns

Rob Franz

ClearStory Ltd

Handmade in the Pacific: Series 1: Episode 1: Yidaki

Yidaki

Episode 1

Episode 1: Yidaki

Series 1

BBC Four - Handmade in the Pacific, Series 1, Yidaki

An Aboriginal family works together to create a 'yidaki' - better known as a didgeridoo.

Documentary series. In Arnhem Land, Northern Australia, a family works to create a 'yidaki' - an ancient and sacred Aboriginal instrument also known as a didgeridoo.

In Arnhem Land in the remote tropical north of Australia, the Gurruwiwi family of the Yolngu Aboriginal people, reveal the world of the 'yidaki', a sacred instrument better known to outsiders as the didgeridoo. 

Believing the yidaki can heal people, control the weather, and summon ancestral spirits, the Yolngu place great importance on the making and playing of this instrument. The yidaki is a key feature of local ceremonial life and is used to play 'songlines', the stories of ancestors that the Yolngu communicate through music and dance. 

Beginning with a 'hunt' for suitable stringybark trees, the tree is then hollowed out, shaped, and given sacred ceremonial paintings with ochres. The film culminates in a 'bunggul', a ceremonial dance where the yidaki is given its first outing. 

Many of the beliefs expressed by the Gurruwiwi family have remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years. Yet, the modern world has definitely arrived.

Handmade in the Pacific: Series 1

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Episode 1: Yidaki

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