About Me

Hi, my name is Bill, I am a normal family man (well as normal as you can get !!) I have a lovely wife, 2 daughters,
one 14 the other 32 and a grandson who is nearly 8 years old. My everyday job is as an automotive spraypainter
specialising in the restoration of older vehicles along with your normal crash repair refinishing
I live in the southern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.

I have been a drummer since I was 6 years old, where I started drumming with the Church Boys Light Brigade in England.
I have played the drums for the above, school bands and numerous Scottish Pipe Bands and became interested in Tribal
drumming and rythms about 21 years ago. For most of my life, I have been a very keen woodworker, this, along with
tribal drumming brought about me delving into the making of African style hand drums, of which now I have quite a
collection. About 11 years ago, I happened to come across a small, narrow shelled drum, along with a beater, in a market,
I enquired as to what it was and found it to be a Native American Medicine Drum. HMMM!!! I thought to myself, I think
I can make one of them !! When time permitted, I set about making my own medicine drum, but not by using a single
hooped piece of plywood, as was the one I saw in the market. I used a process learnt throughout my woodworking
experiences called "Staving" a process where a circular object can be made from straight pieces of timber. Once the correct
mathematics were applied, I had my very first "staved" 16" shell for the medicine drum, I applied a goat skin and tied it
in the way I thought it should be tied, and I still have and use that very same drum today.

Once I was bitten by the making of medicine drums, it encouraged me to do a little more research on the internet into
the correct use of these drums by the Native American Indians, of course back then, the internet was still in its infancy,
so there was really not much in the way of information available (unlike today). But, during my research I came across lots
of pictures of Native American Flutes. Again, being made from timber, they captured my interest quickly. As there was
very little, if any, information on how these flutes where made, I was left with a bit of a dilemma, "how are they made ?"


It was not until about 9 years ago, that a lady who had heard me talking about these flutes, came to me and said that she
had a book that was given to her, which was printed in the early to mid 1930s, and she was sure there was a page in it
which gave details of a Native American Flageolet (this is what these flutes where called) She photocopied the page in
question and gave it to me the next time she saw me. I now had the basics of making a Native American Courting Flute.
I made my first flute, it sounded really good to me but was not sure if it sounded as it should, being in Australia and these
instruments are not native here and very little was known about them, I just left it as it was, at least I was happy with it.
Of course, I was bitten by the bug, I had to make another, and another, and another and it is still going on today, almost
eight years down the track. At least these days there is a mass of information on the internet on how to make these particular
style flutes, which by the way, are the only flutes of their type in the world, they belong wholly and solely to the Native
American Indians. Of course these days, technology and precise mathematics have found their way into the making of
these truly beautiful and unique instruments, this has been done to make the instrument playable along with most other
modern day instruments, concert tuned they call it. I could go on for pages yet about these flutes, but that is a journey
I will leave to you to follow.

I also make a lot of other types of instruments, as you can probably guess, I like my music, and if I can produce the
instrument and then play it the way I like to play all my instruments "From the heart" then I am happy. I have made
such instruments as African Marimbas, African Koras, Tongue Drums, Pacific style Log Drums, Upright Bass, Banjo,
Long Neck Dulcimer, Didgeridoos, Norwegian Wood Flutes, Harmonic Flutes, African Talking Drum, Gourd Rattles,
Lagerphones, Irish Flutes and last but not least, my much treasured Native American Ceremonial (Pow Wow) Drum.

Researching Native American music on the internet also led me into learning more about the Native American
People themselves, and as there are over 500 Indian Nations, I chose to specifically learn about the Lakota Indians.
These are a band of Indians, along with the Dakota and Nakota, who form the largest Nation we know today
as the "Sioux." You can learn a little about the Lakota People on one of my pages.

Most of my life, I have never really felt akin to modern religions, whilst they can be fascinating in their own rights,
I chose not to follow any, I had and still have, my own beliefs, which during the course of my research started
sounding very very similar to the Lakota beliefs. These are more earth/natural based beliefs.

I have also experienced unnatural occurences throughout my life, this has strengthened my beliefs, so much
so that I joined a Paranormal Research Team over 5 years ago but left them early 2005. I have now formed
my own Paranormal Team, you can find a link to our website on the links page. Throughout the time of
actually delving deeper into the world of the Paranormal, I have witnessed, experienced and photographed
many many unusual and unexplainable phenomena, some of which you will find on the team's site.

I cram a lot of things into my life, outside of my family life that is, and I guess this is the journey I am meant
to take in this life. It has been an incredible journey so far and I hope it continues and gets better with each and
every day. To save boring you further with my life, as I am sure you have your own life to lead, I will say no
more, otherwise I could end up writing a book, for which you, nor I have the time at the moment.

In closing, I would just like to say, life is too precious to waste, don't waste one minute, use it to its
fullest and enjoy each and every challenge thrown at you, experience what life has to offer and never
put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Thank you for taking the time to read this far.

*  Canada's Aurora Borealis Screensaver *