If you haven’t seen this week’s Urban Explorer, click here to learn about that ancient wind instrument, the didgeridoo.
I spent a night with Jeremy Lembo at Ybor City’s International Bazaar trying to learn the damned thing and all I ended up with was a big red ring around my mouth from blowing hard on a PVC pipe. Oh, and the article.
One of the more striking things about my conversation with Lembo was how much flak he and other non-aborigine didgeridoo players get for playing the instrument in public in the United States. Some aborigines say this is “cultural appropriation†and harmful to their way of life. The claim is similar to the stance of Native Americans who decry non-Indian New Agers trying to join sweat lodges or pow-wow ceremonies.
But I’ve never heard of any cultural group claiming an instrument to be theirs alone.
This article appears in May 2-8, 2007.
