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Djalu still has it, still passionate about yidaki, still has the energy to cut and painstakingly craft yidaki. He spent several hours looking for the tree from which this yidaki was honed, then more hours crafting it starting early in the morning and finishing in the afternoon. First Djalu uses a machete to slice bark, sapwood and a bit of heartwood off the log, then a different hand tool (can't remember what it is called) to shave more heartwood off and to give the instrument a bit of shape. At a ripe old age of over 70 years old (he was born before WW2 that much we can be sure of), doing this sort of work would exhaust anyone half his age but he keeps on going marrkapmirr manyi. Then the machinery came in, initially a planer to shave more wood, and then an angle-grinder to smooth and shape the instrument some more. Djalu doesn't use the planer very often, actually, I can't remember him using it before but maybe that's just my memory. Notice how every so often, Djalu tests t
