Archaeological studies suggest that people of the Kakadu region in Northern Australia have been using the didgeridoo for less than 1,000 years, based on the dating of rock art paintings.

[2] A clear rock painting in Ginga Wardelirrhmeng, on the northern edge of the Arnhem Land plateau, from the freshwater period[3] (that had begun 1500 years ago)[4] shows a didgeridoo player and two song-men participating in an Ubarr ceremony.

T. B. Wilson's Narrative of a Voyage Round the World (1835) includes a drawing of an Aboriginal man from Raffles Bay on the Cobourg Peninsula (about 350 kilometres (220 mi) east of Darwin) playing the instrument.

[10] A rival explanation, that didgeridoo is a corruption of the Irish phrase dúdaire dubh or Scottish Gaelic dùdaire dúth, is controversial.

[12] Yiḏaki (transcribed yidaki in English, sometimes spelt yirdaki) is one of the most commonly used names although, strictly speaking, it refers to a specific type of the instrument made and used by the Yolngu peoples of north-east Arnhem Land.

[13] Some Yolngu people began using the word mandapul after 2011, out of respect for the passing of a Manggalili man who had a name sounding similar to yidaki.

[14] In west Arnhem Land, it is known as a mako, a name popularised by virtuoso player David Blanasi, a Bininj man, whose language was Kunwinjku, and who brought the didgeridoo to world prominence.

[14][15][7] There are at least 45 names for the didgeridoo, several of which suggest its original construction of bamboo[citation needed], such as bambu, bombo, kambu, and pampu, which are still used in the lingua franca by some Aboriginal people.

[21] Once a suitably hollow tree is found, it is cut down and cleaned out, the bark is taken off, the ends trimmed, and the exterior is shaped; this results in a finished instrument.

Non-traditional didgeridoos can be made from native or non-native hard woods (typically split, hollowed and rejoined), glass, fibreglass, metal, agave, clay, resin, PVC piping and carbon fibre.

The practice has sparked, however, a good deal of debate among indigenous practitioners and non-indigenous people about its aesthetic, ethical, and legal issues.

The didgeridoo functions "...as an aural kaleidoscope of timbres"[26] and "the extremely difficult virtuoso techniques developed by expert performers find no parallel elsewhere.

At some frequencies, whose values depend on the position of the player's tongue, resonances of the vocal tract inhibit the oscillatory flow of air into the instrument.

Chris Brooks, lead singer of the New Zealand hard rock band Like a Storm, uses the didgeridoo in some songs, including "Love the Way You Hate Me" from their album Chaos Theory: Part 1 (2012).

Kate Bush made extensive use of the didgeridoo, played by Australian musician Rolf Harris, on her album The Dreaming (1982), which was written and recorded after a holiday in Australia.

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 ... part of a general ignorance that mainstream Australia has about Aboriginal culture.

"[2][34][35] However, Linda Barwick, an ethnomusicologist, said that though traditionally women have not played the didgeridoo in ceremony, in informal situations there is no prohibition in the Dreaming Law.

[36] 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.

The didgeridoo was introduced to the 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.

[2] 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.

[38] A small 2010 study noted marked improvements in the asthma management of 10 Aboriginal adults and children following a six-month programme of once-weekly didgeridoo lessons.