Mago Masterclass: An Introduction to the 'Kunborrk' Didjeridu Playing Style of the Western Arnhem Region of Australia Artist/Collector: Darryl Dikarrna with White Cockatoo Label Information: White Cockatoo WC01 Media Type: CD Year: 2006 Availability: White Cockatoo (Australia) Ginger Root Records (USA) Serious Sticks (Europe)

Darryl Dikarrna
Darryl is one of the senior artists and Mago (Didjeridu) master of The White Cockatoo Performing Group. Darryl was born at the Mudginberri outstation near Ubirr rock in what is now the Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia. He grew up at the Gochanjinyjirra outstation near the Maningrida community in Western Arnhem Land. The languages Darryl speaks include Mayali and Kuninjku, and his social affiliation or moiety is Yirritja.

Darryl Dikarrna: 'I first started playing the Mago at the age of six. My grandfather (the legendary "Mago master", David Blanasi, the "White Cockatoo") came to Maningrida for business and festivals and I listened to him playing and picked that style. One day my grandfather asked if there were any young boys playing that Mago Buyngaliyn Buyngaliyn way (see Kunborrk, below) and they called my (skin) name. I was seven years old.'

'I was playing Mago beside that old Junggayi (Law Man), David Yirindilli, at the ceremony making young man business (initiation) and all of those elders were sitting down listening including my Grandfather. He was listening and said, "I'm getting old and I want someone to take over so I will hand this one on to you son, you play very well, so one day I will hand this Mago business over to you. You will take over from me."'

'In the year 2000, when we were driving down to Adelaide, he said, "well young man, now I give you permission. So you can take over this Mago business now." I've got his word in my mind.'

In this way David Blanasi, the greatest exponent of the Kunborrk tradition in living memory, appointed Darryl as his successor. As such, Darryl is the latest representative of a line of Mago masters believed by many to span millennia, and is heir to the cultural knowledge and practices of the world's oldest unbroken artistic tradition. Through Darryl's active participation in ceremonies at home, and performance, composition and teaching abroad, the Kunborrk tradition continues to flourish in the present day.

The Mago
This instrument (the didjeridu) is known as Mago in the Mayali language group of Western and Southern Arnhem Land. In Mayali, the word Mago also means night bird, or Owl. Darryl's home, Western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, is the original birthplace of the Mago.

The Songmen
Despite the prominence of the Mago it is the songmen who own and create the songs and decide what kind of accompaniment the Mago player will provide. The focus on the Mago is purely a Western preoccupation. Within traditional culture the songmen are considered the more important members of any music ensemble.

Kunborrk
The Kunborrk (alt. spelling Gunborg) song tradition originates from the Western Arnhem region. This style is characterized by a continual drone of the Mago. The drone is syncopated in time with the songmen who set the tempo by playing Mannbelinj (Mayali) or clap sticks.

Darryl Dikarrna: "There is a big mob different Kunborrk. There is the Yirritja Buyngaliyn Buyngaliyn style. That's a little bit rough." (meaning it is very vigorous. Perhaps the greatest exponent of this 'rough' style was Darryl's virtuoso grandfather 'The Bomb' David Blanasi, "I play straight out! No muckin' around!")

'Other Kunborrk is the Dhuwa Moiety Mimi (Earth Spirit) style from the Maningrida region and the Dhuwa Manngalinj (Sacred Yam) style also from Maningrida. "These ones are not so rough."'

Kunborrk is an enormous classical tradition that musicologists and linguists are just starting to describe. Understanding the Mago accompaniment to particular songs is a complex process of learning from childhood, and this short introductory disc can show Western Mago players only a few of the tradition's fundamental techniques.

Much remains to be learned about the deeper structural processes which govern composition and improvisation in this classical tradition, and until further research is undertaken Westerners cannot presume any more than a superficial acquaintance with the art form. Mastering a few Mago basics can never be a substitute for the kind of understanding that comes from many years of education from within traditional indigenous culture. It is not possible to acquire a deep intuitive appreciation for the aesthetics of good Kunborrk accompaniment simply by amassing more didjeridu playing techniques.

There is no objection to players who "make their own style" but Western practitioners who assimilate a few preliminaries in a particular traditional style and then think they are just as good as traditional indigenous Kunborrk artists, for example, are both deluding themselves and misrepresenting this venerable tradition to the world at large.

Darryl Dikarrna: '"I do my own style. I am a traditional Kunborrk player but I don't pinch my Grandfather's style, I play my own way, no animal calls. 'You mob listening to this CD, do your own style too. You have to find your own way. You can't be one of us, you have to find your own way."'