Many musical instruments were used but the didgeridoo was not one of them. The didge was a Northern Australian instrument whereas Wathaurong people used possum skin percussion, clap sticks, bull roarers, boomerangs and other instruments.

The human voice was the primary musical instrument and song cycles were a record of the whole history of the people as well as musical entertainments.

George Augustus Robinson, Aboriginal Protector, noted a wide array of instruments including the instance of a child casually stripping some of the bark from a green stick and whirling it by the thin end and producing music ‘much like the Aeolian Harp.’

Dance was inextricably bound to the music and allowed a three dimensional representation of history, spirituality, and current events in much the same way as theatre, opera, orchestras and TV soapie serve modern communities

Bruce Pascoe
Wathaurong Co-operative