Banyji is an Yindjibarndi Elder and Cultural Custodian and highly respected artist. She is a daughter of renowned YIndjibarndi Cultural Custodian, Teacher and Elder, Ned Mayurabingu Cheedy, (winner of the 2012 Australian NAIDOC Aboriginal Person of the Year, before he died at the age of 105), and renowned Yindjibarndi plants specialist, Cherry Cheedy.
Since 2010, Banyji has been creating beautiful acrylic paintings on canvas. In the past three years she has extended her art practices to her very beautiful stitched works on linen, stitched acrylic paintings, and yarranga marni works on carved boards, and woven fibre works. Her passion is to celebrate the plants, animals, water and creation stories of her Yindjibarndi country and culture.
Over many years, Banyji’s artwork has been regularly exhibited at Rio Tinto’s annual Colours of our Country Exhibitions, and at both Japingka and FORM. In 2014, she won Best Work by a WA Indigenous Artist at the Cossack Art Awards.
As a Yindjibarndi cultural leader, Banyji has inspired Juluwarlu’s Nyinyart Yinda Water Arts and Cultural Futures Project and shares her cultural, environmental and creative skills and knowledge with emerging artists and young people.
