David Charles Hudson is an Australian Aboriginal musician, entertainer and artist. Hudson is a multi-instrumentalist and was taught to play traditional didgeridoo from an early age. He also plays guitar, kit drums, percussion. He plays traditional music, as well as more ambient music, country-folk, rock, and new age.
David Charles Hudson was born in the early 1960s as a Tjapukai tribesman and is a descendant of the Ewamian-Western Yalanji peoples of the Cairns region. He explained "I grew up in a household with uncles and aunts who painted and carved. I was taught traditional stories, so I was painting stories, and I learned what this line represents and this dot represents." He was also taught to play traditional didgeridoo. Hudson finished secondary schooling in 1979, then he attended a teachers' college and was qualified as a recreation officer. According to Hudson "the majority of indigenous teenagers left school in year 10 and followed their fathers and grandfathers to work on railways, in construction or on cane fields."
In 1987 Hudson, Cindy Judd and a United States couple, Don and Judy Freeman, established the Tjapukai Dance Theatre and the related Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park in Kuranda. Hudson, as a dancer and musician, toured with Greek-American musician, Yanni, from 1996 to 2005 and appears on the artist's albums, Tribute (November 1997), Ethnicity (February 2003) and Yanni Live! The Concert Event (August 2006). From 1997 to 2012 Hudson was General Manager of Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.
2013 David consulted for Dreamworld on the Gold Coast as cultural advisor, choreographer and script writer.
On March 26, 2014 David was recently given an 'Honorary Doctorate' from the James Cook University Cairns Qld Australia for his Outstanding service distinguished public contribution to the Queensland community. Exceptional service to the University through his willingness to assist students and researchers to obtain and interpret cultural knowledge and Exceptional contributions beyond expectations of his field of endeavour, as a role model who has influenced the thinking and general well-being of humanity.
October 2014 David gave a ""TEDx"" talk titled Have Didge will Travel at TEDxJCUCairns. David's talk explains how a boy once classified by the Government as fauna, grew up and is now able to spread a positive message about Aboriginal culture, especially through his passion for the didgeridoo.
