Nicole Kidman plays didgeridoo on TV

Nicole Kidman upsets Aboriginal people with didgeridoo TV performance

Nicole Kidman unwittingly upset the indigenous people of Australia by playing the didgeridoo - or should we say the didgeridon't? - on a German chat show.

The actress made the faux pas at the weekend on Wetten Das…?, a popular German chat show, on which she appeared with Hugh Jackman to promote their new movie, Australia.

Kidman blew into the didgeridoo - which Aboriginal groups believe the didgeridoo makes women infertile - while Jackman mimicked one of the Aboriginal actors on the film by standing on one leg.

But the star came under fire by Aboriginal leaders for the stunt, because it flouts an Aboriginal custom that dictates women are forbidden to play the instrument.

Allen Madden, cultural and educational officer at Sydney’s Aboriginal Land Council said the film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, should have educated his cast about Aboriginal traditions.

'I presume she doesn’t know, otherwise she wouldn’t have been playing it,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.