Type: overtone-absent didgeridoo
Key: F-F# fundamental
Length: 111 cm
Air chamber volume: 855 cm3
Mouthpiece diameter: 3.1 cm
Distal end diameter: 6.5-7 cm
Weight: 2.3 kg
Region: Mandorah, north-west Northern Territory opposite Darwin on the western side of the harbour, NT, Australia
Collection date: 1977
Description: In the local language where this article was collected, in the Darwin region, the didgeridoo is known as kenbi or mamiylim. This particular instrument was purchased at Mandorah after a corroboree performance in 1977. It is decorated with what appears to be water designs representing Belyuen waterhole.

There are suggestions that the didgeridoo was first made and used in the NW region of the Northern Territory before it spread to other parts of Australia. The evidence for this is biogeographic with doyen of Australian ethnomusicology Alice M. Moyle proposing a model for the instrument’s history in her article The Australian didjeridu: a late musical intrusion:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249007065_The_Australian_didjeridu_A_late_musical_intrusion

It is also likely that the very first didgeridoos were of the overtone-absent type as this superb kenbi/mamiylim specimen is.

Overtone-absent didgeridoo F fundamental Kenbi / Mamiylim from Mandorah 1977

A one-of-a-kind virtual museum of sound focussed on the Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo. It aims to engage the curiosity of visitors and to provide a place for deeper learning on an iconic Australian object.

Overtone-absent didgeridoo F fundamental Kenbi / Mamiylim from Mandorah 1977

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