With all due respect to the Yiddaki and to the Aboriginal people I honour and respect your culture and traditions and was therefore drawn to playing the didg. The breathing came easily and I love to use it for healing.
My experience with playing didg as a woman has been….
Aboriginal people have been extremely wounded. All the mixed blooded people have had almost everything taken away from them- language, family, land, traditions and a sense of belonging to country. So they cling to what ever they can and project all their anger for the loss of their culture for any excuse…namely women are not suppose to play didg….for some tribes this was true, but for some this was not the case.
In 1998 I met a full-blooded woman from the Pilbara Region in WA, Polly was her name and she performed and played the didg for our healing ceremony! When I told her I was a closet didg player as I thought women were not suppose to play she told me, "you come to my country, all the women play didg there!!’ And the didg they play is a small skinny one.Then when I went to Arnhem land and met Jaloo the Keeper of the Yidaki, one of his brothers asked me if I played, they are pretty psychic, so I didn’t lie and said yes but only for healing.
They made me play and I was so worried I would be speared or something worse. After they said, Youngle women do not play but he gave me permission to play because I was not Youngle and I was using it with integrity. I try not to play in fount of people who it would hurt or offend and hence feel so free to playing out of Australia and I always honour the ancestors from where the Yiddaki came from – traditional name for didgeridoo- European name cause of the sound it makes.
It is another thing of reclaiming our freedom as women! One thing to remember is that Aboriginal people are very gender separate with most things. When the first Anthropologists came to Oz they were all male, so they recorded the male story. Women would not open up and share women’s business with a white man so nothing of their story is recorded. Suited the patriarchy perfectly!
Also my dear friend and amazing didg player Xavier Rudd, recently told me of the female didg from the Northern Territories, which is always painted with Mimi Spirits on it. These are parts of culture that have been conveniently forgot or left out as it is easier to stick to their angry guns that women are some how less then and there for not suppose to play an instrument which calls directly to spirit and the Spirit of the Earth. It is just as untraditional for any white men and also some aboriginal people where Didgeridoo was not part of their culture such as southern NSW. But again this is over looked and nor frowned upon as harshly as women playing.
I believe, as with all things, follow your heart. If it calls you then it is right for you and always play with reverence and respect while still following your own inspirations!
I use the Didg as part of my healing sessions to ground people and also to track lost soul parts in Shamanic journeys. The frequency is powerful and helps people to get out of their heads and into their bodies and hearts and then to enter the Dream Time where it is possible to change future outcomes and assemblage points- the point of integration of the filamentous field which provides the individuals view of reality.