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Lost didgeridoo returned to Australian artist after airline fumble

A once lost didgeridoo has now been found.

David Williams, a musician from Australia, was in Saskatoon this week for the Saskatchewan World Indigenous Festival for the Arts.

During his travels, he brought along with him his didgeridoo, an Indigenous Australian wind instrument traditionally made out of a hollowed-out piece of wood. But when he landed in the Bridge City, he ran into a big problem: the airline had lost his instrument.

"The irony would be that it arrived and was delivered to my hotel as I was on stage at the SWIFFA event," wrote Williams in an email to CBC News.

Williams said he acquired a replacement from a local store, 10,000 Villages, to play during his performance.

As a classically-trained pianist and trombone player, Williams has spent the last decade and a half flying around the globe with his didgeridoo.

On Thursday morning, he improvised a performance on CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning using three sections of pipe scavenged from various vaccuum cleaners. While the improvised instrument wasn't exactly the same, the musician managed to make it work.

"It feels a little bit artificial than what we're used to," he told host, Leisha Grebinski. "It still does the job, I guess."