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Wally Caruana - Director, Caruana
Fine Arts; Adjunct Reader, Art History, Australian National
University, Canberra; Senior Consultant, Aboriginal Art, Sotheby's
Australia:
"For nearly twenty years as Senior Curator of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of
Australia, Canberra, until 2001, and in my new role since
then, I have had the privilege of visiting Aboriginal communities
across the Top End of Australia, as well as getting to know
artists in a range of disciplines, including visual artists
and musicians. I have also had the opportunity of working
closely with a number of communities in developing collections
and exhibitions of visual art.
As part of these processes I have come to recognise the ritual
significance of the didgeridoo within indigenous society. Apart
from all its other attributes, the didgeridoo is a work of
art in itself: many are beautifully painted and indeed have
been collected by major institutions devoted to the visual
arts such as the National Gallery in Canberra and the Art
Gallery of New South Wales.
The ever increasing commercial interest in the didgeridoo
has, to my mind, not been accompanied with any equivalent
appreciation of the value of the instrument within Aboriginal
society - not of its meaning nor of its symbolism.
With years of working within Aboriginal communities behind
them, iDIDJ Australia is well placed to provide and promote
the educational context for the didgeridoo.
As indigenous visual arts have become a powerful and effective
ambassador for Aboriginal aspirations and achievements in
the public domain, so too the didgeridoo - with an awareness
of the cultural value of the instrument presented according
to the objectives of iDIDJ Australia - can also fulfil such
a crucial role".
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