Six Noongar seasons mural by artist Tom Dimer unveiled at Albany Secondary Education Support Centre

A colourful mural documenting the six Noongar seasons was unveiled by Mt Barker-raised artist Tom Dimer at Albany Secondary Education Support Centre last week.

The mural is based around the six Noongar seasons, which are indicated by changes in local plants and animals and traditionally guided the Noongar people’s hunting and gathering behaviours.

It spans the length of a classroom block, with individual sections depicting the weather conditions and prominent animals in each season, surrounded by the students’ handprints.

During the unveiling event attended by students and members of the school community last Wednesday, Dimer shared some of his journey to becoming an artist which began with learning from his grandmother, the late artist Bella Kelly.

Dimer was commissioned to create the mural for ASESC with funds the school raised during an art sale held earlier this year.

Teacher John Jarzabek thanked Dimer for creating an exciting mural on a previously “really boring and dull” wall.

“Tommy has embraced our ethos of wanting everyone to learn, not just students, but staff, and parents, and the community at large,” Mr Jarzabek said.

“It’s been a wonderful experience having Tommy come along and share his knowledge with the community and our school.”

The mural completes the school’s six seasons garden area which features seasonal plants and timber totem poles.

Dimer spoke to the crowd about how he was inspired by the surrounding environment while painting the mural.

“I painted the magpie because at that time the magpies were starting to swoop, and so I was thinking about the magpie and that’s why it got put up on the wall,” Dimer said.

He said he hoped the mural would become another form of education for students.

“It’s a different style of education, visual education, and that is a part of the Aboriginal culture,” Dimer said.

“What we see, what we hear, is what we know.

“This is the environment you guys live in, and the six seasons govern the Noongar people and how we lived our lives.

“It governed everything we did, it governed the food we ate, it governed where we lived, it governed what part of the environment we were utilising at certain parts of the year.”