G'day WyoWoman,

My interest is Australian traditions ... especially the effect of improvised and portable instruments.

Some that have become iconic (dangerously close to clichés) would be:
The Tea Chest Bass - a string on a pole broom handle ~) and a wooden tea chest
The Lagerphone - lots of bootle tops looseky naile to a (broom)stick and played by a combination of bouncing, striking with a stick, rubbing with notches in the stick and twisting to sound small bells hung thereupon,
The bones: found anywhere that British influence is remembered (including many African regions that contributed slaves to early USA)
Various stringed instruments using tin containers ae resonators - I've just made a few for children's workshops at the Powerhouse museum, Sydney.
Whistles: Long traditions usinf anything from reeds, bamboo, willow sheafs ... to offcuts of plastic and metal pipe. I made my first in 1966 - and most recent this year.

Some of these must be acceptable ... ?!?

Reagrds,

Bob Bolton