Students Dig Down-Under Demonstration

Darren Liebman played the didgeridoo for the first time in 1999 on his fourth visit to Australia.

The deep sound that the long, carved instrument produced intrigued the Tampa man so much that on his next trip to Australia he bought one and soon hatched a plan for a new career.

Now Liebman heads up a company called Didgeridoo Down Under that performs at schools, camps, libraries, museums, corporate gatherings and other venues.

He and his partner, Lindsey Dank, along with two part-time performers, take their show to six states and hope to expand to even more next year.

"We are all extremely passionate about what we do," said Liebman, who performed Monday at Seven Oaks Elementary for children in the school's summer PLACE program.

The performances lean heavily on entertainment, but shows for children include an educational element that teaches the audience about the history, geography, culture, weather and wildlife of Australia.

Liebman also throws in a few comments about recycling and other ways of "saving the planet."

All of it, though, revolves around the didgeridoo.

The didgeridoo is a wind instrument, usually made from a eucalyptus tree, that Aboriginals have been playing for thousands of years. The drone of the didgeridoo can sound almost like an electronic hum.

The Aboriginals use the instrument to mimic the sounds of nature, such as wind, waves and animals.

"This is a sacred instrument," Liebman told the children at Seven Oaks Elementary.

He opened his show without a word. Instead, he just began playing, long notes at first, then switching to sudden bursts that surprised the children, who giggled after their initial startled reactions.

Liebman detailed a little of his own history for the children.

He was born in South Africa, a troubled country that his family left when he was 5 years old. They settled in Hollywood, Fla. He majored in journalism at the University of Florida and worked as a freelance writer and photographer, among other jobs, before founding Didgeridoo Down Under in 2002 and going full time with it in 2003.

Information about the company is available at www.didgrevolution.com.

Although he originates from South Africa, he has relatives in Australia and has traveled there six times.

Liebman brought along a list of 14 vocabulary words for the children. They were: Aborigines, Australia, boomerang, bull-roarer, didgeridoo, endemic, eucalyptus, feral, indigenous, mammal, marsupial, monotreme, Oceania and pointillism. Each word was covered at some point during his presentation.

In discussing the Aboriginals, who are the earliest known people to inhabit Australia, Liebman stressed the importance of respecting the differences among people. In the United States, people tend to refer to them as Aborigines, but in Australia the preferred term is Aboriginals, he said.

He urged the children to say in unison, "We're all part of the same human race."

Liebman brought along six didgeridoos to Seven Oaks. Like people, didgeridoos come in all shapes and sizes, he said. The didgeridoo is used by the Aboriginals in rituals, ceremonies and storytelling.

Liebman demonstrated how the didgeridoo can be used to mimic such sounds as a kangaroo hopping, water, a bird, a dingo, whales and crickets.

Children interested in playing a didgeridoo can do so without traveling to Australia or paying hundreds of dollars for an instrument, Liebman said.

A piece of PVC pipe from a hardware store can produce a similar sound.

On his most recent trip to Australia, Liebman bought another didgeridoo. This one was made by an Aboriginal elder and painted by his wife. Liebman pulled out this didgeridoo for his show's finale.

Liebman's performance had built to a point at which the children could release all of their energy in one frantic storytelling sequence.

To end the show, he switched to a soothing sound designed to calm them.

The didgeridoo's final drone faded, and the show was over.