The world's oldest culture is helping give school students focus, confidence and self-esteem through didgeridoo making and playing.

For didgeridoo maker Alex Murchison, 10 years of teaching people how to make the iconic Aboriginal instrument has shown him a wide variety of benefits.

His students start with a termite-hollowed tree and six hours later have an instrument to call their own, but it is the start of a much broader journey.

"There are lots of benefits, but obviously the most visible one is they get to have something they made that they take home," he said.

"There's the 'I did it' self-esteem thing, but a lot of other stuff goes on underneath.

"There's mentoring, perseverance, finishing something, attention to detail, consequences of how much effort you put in — there's character development in it too."

Mr Murchison travels the country holding his didgeridoo-making workshops, and because he is non-Indigenous, he focuses on the craft of creating the instrument.

He then encourages the students to connect with local elders to continue the education.

"The Indigenous boys will sometimes not have a strong connection to culture if they live in a city, and this allows them to feel they've made a connection and roots into it."

The didgeridoo-making workshops are an exercise in woodwork but can lead to cultural connections. ( ABC Illawarra: Sarah Gore )

Getting recognised for the right reasons

At St Joseph's Catholic High School in Albion Park in Wollongong, Indigenous education coordinator Kane Brown has watched students grow through learning the didgeridoo.

He now gets them to show off their skills at school assemblies.

"Those kids who are normally the ratbags or a bit cheeky and talkative, they get attention for something good.

"They're hesitant to do it, but when they do, the response they get from teachers and classmates is positive.

"They tell them 'we didn't realise you could do that' and you can see them grow taller."

Alex Murchison has seen the same impact.

He said the most challenging students he worked with were often the best at his workshop and showed the most potential.

"My experiences tell me that when someone has that connection — and it doesn't even have to be cultural — they have knowledge in their mind and that changes the decisions they make," he said.

"They start to make positive life choices and instead of doing stupid stuff to stand out, they now have a skill and some self-esteem and they know they can do this to stand out instead."

He has also seen people on the autism spectrum excel at making the instrument.

Alex Murchison's program sees students make a didgeridoo in about six hours. ( ABC Illawarra: Sarah Gore )

'It's what makes my day' — seeing pride and smiles

With the trees turned into didgeridoos in six hours, Alex Murchison can watch their impact straight away.

That includes seeing the students — most of whom have already been trained to play the didgeridoo at St Joseph's — get a sound out of their instrument for the first time.

"It's what makes my day — to see the smiles on their faces and the pride that they've done it," Mr Murchison said.

"Those kids keep bringing their didgeridoo in day after day and carry it around like a badge of honour.

"It creates a catalyst for the students and school to start a program that has these other cultures and layers … because this program has been a foundation to that."

Kane Brown said the program also had positive flow-on effects to the way the students approached learning in other subjects.

"It's done as a woodworking program and we wanted to get them doing something that ties into what they're learning and gets them out of the classroom," he said.

"It's another way to get them engaged back into school and their learning."