Editing Didgeridoo (section)

===Sex-based traditional prohibition debate===
Traditionally, only men play the didgeridoo and sing during ceremonial occasions; playing by women is sometimes discouraged by Aboriginal communities and elders. In 2008, publisher [[HarperCollins]] apologised for its book ''The Daring Book for Girls'', which openly encouraged girls to play the instrument, after Aboriginal academic Mark Rose described such encouragement as "extreme cultural insensitivity" and "an extreme faux pas{{nbsp}}... part of a general ignorance that mainstream Australia has about Aboriginal culture."<ref name="PBP">{{cite book|title =The Didjeridu: From Arnhemland to Internet|publisher =Perfect Beat Publishers|pages =[https://archive.org/details/didjeridufromarn0000unse/page/89 89–98]|isbn =1-86462-003-X|editor-first =Karl|editor-last =Neuenfeldt|date =1997|url =https://archive.org/details/didjeridufromarn0000unse/page/89}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7595515.stm|title=Didgeridoo book upsets Aborigines|date=3 September 2008|access-date=21 April 2021|website=News.bbc.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/daring-book-for-girls-breaks-didgeridoo-taboo-in-australia-917751.html|title='Daring Book for Girls' breaks didgeridoo taboo in Australia|date=23 October 2011|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|access-date=21 April 2021}}</ref> However, [[Linda Barwick]], an [[Ethnomusicology|ethnomusicologist]], said that though traditionally women have not played the didgeridoo in ceremony, in informal situations there is no prohibition in the [[the Dreaming|Dreaming Law]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bushcrafts.com.au/Info_pages/Can_women_play_didgeridoo.html |title=Women can play didgeridoo – taboo incites sales |access-date=25 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604181534/http://www.bushcrafts.com.au/Info_pages/Can_women_play_didgeridoo.html |archive-date=4 June 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> For example, in 1966, ethnomusicologist [[Alice Marshall Moyle]] made a recording in Borroloola of Jemima Wimalu, a Mara woman from the Roper River, proficiently playing the didgeridoo.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moyle |first1=Alice M. |date=|title=Aboriginal Sound Instruments |publisher=Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies |pages=18–19 |citeseerx=10.1.1.370.505 }}</ref>  In 1995, musicologist Steve Knopoff observed Yirrkala women performing ''djatpangarri'' songs that are traditionally performed by men and in 1996, ethnomusicologist Elizabeth MacKinley reported women of the Yanyuwa group giving public performances.

Although there is no prohibition in the area of the didgeridoo's origin, such restrictions have been applied by other Indigenous communities. The didgeridoo was introduced to the [[Kimberley (Western Australia)|Kimberleys]] in the early 20th century but it was only much later, such as in Rose's 2008 criticism of ''The Daring Book for Girls'', that Aboriginal men showed adverse reactions to women playing the instrument and prohibitions are especially evident in the South East of Australia. The belief that women are prohibited from playing is widespread among non-Aboriginal people and is also common among Aboriginal communities in Southern Australia; some ethnomusicologists believe that the dissemination of the [[taboo]] belief and other misconceptions is a result of commercial agendas and marketing. The majority of commercial didgeridoo recordings available are distributed by multinational recording companies and feature non-Aboriginal people playing a [[New Age]] style of music with [[liner notes]] promoting the instrument's spirituality which misleads consumers about the didgeridoo's secular role in traditional Aboriginal culture.<ref name="PBP"/>

The taboo is particularly strong among many Aboriginal groups in the South East of Australia, where it is forbidden and considered "cultural theft" for non-Aboriginal women, and especially performers of New Age music regardless of sex, to play or even touch a didgeridoo.<ref name="PBP"/>