Fiona Reidy won the $10,000 Binjareb Art Award

FIONA Reidy is the winner of the $10,000 Binjareb Art Award with her work A Journey with our Ancestors.

The award was presented at Mandurah Performing Arts Centre during the opening ceremony of NAIDOC Week.

In its fourth year, the acquisitive award contributes to an emergent Nyungar Arts Collection for the community by the City of Mandurah.

Reidy is a Noongar woman of the Bal-ar-dong clan traditionally located in the York and Brookton area and her inspiration to paint has developed over time observing different styles and talents of her family.

Reidy’s art is a rhythmic combination of colours and earthy tones with an ability to layer and blend giving her dot work a kinetic, unique, contemporary and sometimes three dimensional style.

Her winning work depicts one of the six Noongar seasons – Makuru (June/July) – which sees the coldest and wettest time of the year.

Makuru is the time of the year when the Noongar people used to live by the rivers, estuaries and coast.

The leaves represent the red eye wattle and Noongar people knew the seeds had to be cooked before they could be eaten.

The seed pods were dried, ground and made into damper.

“I like to paint about the knowledge passed down from our ancestors to bring the past into the present for the future generations,’’ Reidy said.

The exhibition runs until July 30.