Unique Indigenous sound connects to ANZAC service
In the stillness of dawn during ANZAC Day in northern France, a deep and unmistakably Australian sound rises across rows of white headstones.
Known to most as the didgeridoo, it is the ancient sound of the yidaki.
Warrant Officer Class Two (WO2) Lachlan Youll, formerly of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, stands among the fallen, playing into the cold morning air.
This year, he will perform the Army Songline, a ceremonial composition grounded in First Nations tradition and shaped by the Australian Army’s history.
Meaningful sounds
“The Army Songline tells a story – of those men, of home,” WO2 Youll, who has family ties to the Bidjara people of Queensland, told Defence media.
“Especially when we’re overseas, it reminds soldiers of where they come from and of those who have fallen.
“It’s spiritual and emotional. The sounds are meaningful, especially for ceremony.”
The yidaki, originating in Arnhem Land, is one of the oldest instruments in the world. It has been used for ceremony, storytelling and spiritual practice for thousands of years. Its connection to military commemoration dates back to World War II, when it was played to honour the fallen alongside Australian soldiers in northern Australia.
More than 80 years later, the instrument echoes across the former battlefields of World War I.
Recognition
“It sets the scene and it makes people reflect, not just on where they’re from, but why soldiers went to war, and what it all means,” WO2 Youll said.
‘In the future, I’d like people to hear the Army Songline and immediately recognise it, like they do with the Last Post, and connect it to Australia and ANZAC Day.’
More than 1200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men are recognised as having served in World War I, according to the Australian War Memorial. Many fought and died far from home, and are buried across France and Belgium, or commemorated on memorials to the missing.
They served a nation that, at the time, did not fully recognise them.
