ABSTRACT
The sound-systems of Australia’s Indigenous peoples perpetuate ancient ways of coping with the immediate physical environment through creative cultural responses. A renewable musical store of material is provided in nature, as with the traditional method of sourcing didjeridus (didgeridoos) from termite-hollowed trees of the Eucalyptus genus. Fragile foliage may also become a musical instrument if it meets the criteria for selection of a gumleaf instrument. Informed by the resilience theories of C. S. Holling (and others), I gauge the impact made on these social-ecological systems by natural environmental processes, anthropogenic land use change, and climate change. I focus on the resilience of musical instrument supply from yellow box (E. melliodora, source of the so-called “Stradileaf” of southeastern Australia); Darwin stringybark (E. tetrodonta, the highly sought “didj tree” of northern Australia); and various Eucalyptus mallee trees (harvested for didjeridu manufacture in Western Australia). The local is inextricably linked to the global: evidence is mounting that shows eucalypts in a high-CO2 environment respond by growing thicker (i.e. lower-pitched) leaves, thus undergirding the hypothesis that altered sonic worlds will inevitably emerge from an altered climate. Based on this and other scientific findings, I conclude that global warming has consequences, not just for the future of Eucalyptus as a wellspring for musical production, but also for the general physical foundations of musical practice and instrument manufacture – and thus for human cultures.
