St. Mary's Cathedral

The man in this picture is Geoff Tonkin.  He has many talents from preforming music on a variety of instruments to woodworking.  A number of the instruments he plays he has handcrafted.  However, Geoff wasn’t always a musician.  Earlier in his life he worked as a sheep drover, herding over 4 thousand sheep across the Australian bush.  Geoff Tonkin has lead a storied life and through his experiences he teaches others the joy of playing these instruments and even making the instruments themselves.  The music that he plays acts as an expression of the history and culture of Australia.  He started his ensemble of musical samples with the didgeridoo, an instruments used by the indigenous people in parts of Australia.  During his talk, he detailed the intricacies of playing the didgeridoo.  A good didge has what Geoff calls a crackle.  This crackle is due to the irregularity in how the instruments was hollowed out by ants.  More than a straight pipe, each didgeridoo bears a unique sound.  During the lesson, Geoff taught us the different kinds of sounds one can make on the didgeridoo.  It can simulate the sound of boomerangs, kangaroos, and a variety of birds.  The didgeridoo acts as a story telling device.  Through its sounds and calls, a rich and detailed tale is woven.  The ability of the didgeridoo to relate a story shows its cultural importance.  The traditions of the indigenous peoples in Australia are oral, and their history is passed down through their songs.  The didgeridoo seems to be a cultural symbol of indigenous Australia; however, it is the songs that one plays on the instrument that acts as the true representation of culture.

Geoff’s repertoire included much more than just the didgeridoo.  He played the guitar, the harmonica, multiple accordions and a couple of handmade string instruments.  On these instruments he played examples of common folk music in the Australian bush.  There was a lack of traditional European instruments in Australia at the time, so people improvised.  Songs were played using a guitar a squeezebox and a harmonica.  Many of these songs were altered sea shanties, using the same melody but modifying the words.  The traditional sea shanties would talk of sea life when the people singing them were miles inland.  Therefore, the words were changed to fit the pastoral lifestyle of the Australian immigrants.  Through these songs, we experienced a window into the culture of another aspect of Australia.  The songs provide much more about the experiences of these pastoral people than any history book could attempt.  By singing these songs for us, Geoff passed on a cultural knowledge of Australia that we could not experience just through our readings. 

A number of the instruments Geoff used were homemade.  He played on a cigar box guitar, another string instrument made out of hubcaps, and a percussion instrument called a jager stick.  These instruments, especially the jager stick, also acts as expression of the culture of Australians.  The jager stick is an instrument of simple construction; a long stick with a couple dozen bottle caps attached and a crossbar added to the middle.  Geoff told us that the pastoral Australians lacked a percussion instruments to use in their music, so they invented the jager stick to fill the role.  The device, although not exactly beautiful in its design, has a degree of beauty in its usefulness.  When talking about the didgeridoos, Geoff warned us that we should buy a didge for its art; the apparently exquisite piece could be unplayable.  The true beauty of an instrument does not lie in its design; it can only be expressed though the songs played on the instrument.  The value of musical instruments in Australia acts as an example of the nature of Australian culture as a whole.  Australia does not tolerate frivolity; the early settlers used what they had and made the best of it.  The itinerant, pastoral workers forged the culture of Australia, and we glimpsed this culture though the songs that Geoff played for us.