Peace garden at the heart of Haus Yuriyal’s grand display

Thu 30 Jan 2025

Haus Yuriyal’s project for 'The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' began long before the exhibition opened, with Veronica Gikope planting a suna 'garden' (illustrated) of crops significant to the Yuri within the Queensland Art Gallery’s Sculpture Courtyard next to the QAG Cafe in late 2023. Since then varieties of sugarcane, banana, and taro have flourished in the Queensland capital’s subtropical climate, ahead of the men arriving to complete the structural components of their Triennial installation (illustrated).

More than just a source of food, their gardens embody knowledge about the natural environment of the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Like many aspects of this part of the world, the garden is functional, but also beautiful, with tall stakes of winding beans interspersed with bright, colourful flowers. Spiky leaves of rows of pineapples are broken only by the swollen form of the golden fruit, while tall stands of slender sugar cane, broad-leafed taro and banana palms emerge alongside the graceful fern-like leaves of the dini. Fittingly, an integral part of Haus Yuriyal’s display in the Triennial is a garden, designed by Gikope to articulate the centrality of subsistence agriculture to the lives and culture of the Yuri.

The relevance of the exchange of sugarcane is a gesture of peace and unity significant to the Yuri culture as Gikope reflects in her video — bundled up it’s used in weddings, a welcome to visitors, cooked for friends, and a peace offering during conflict.

Watch | Veronica Gikope introduces you to GOMA suna (peace garden) 2023–24

Locally, keep an eye out for our friendly resident water dragons who have made the lush garden their home. Australia’s largest dragon lizard, native to eastern Australia have a life span of around 20 years, though they can grow up to a metre in length, thankfully our plump residents aren’t that big.

The Haus Yuriyal collective gathers to work in a circular Hausman (men’s house), traditional in the Jiwaka region of the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Its members originate from a number of provinces including Simbu, Jiwaka and South Highlands, with many sharing a genealogical connection to the Yuri tribe. The group began as a gathering of men keen to learn and share cultural practices; in recent years, the collective has expanded to include collaboration from Yuri women.

The vibrant designs customarily created on fighting shields within a Hausman provides the inspiration for Haus Yuriyal, who develop dazzling, individualised designs with paint, paper, plywood and wool. For the Triennial, Haus Yuriyal presents a display encompassing architectural structures, kuman (shield) paintings, textiles and videos that express their unity and collective journey.

Each of the shield designs in Garpa/Ground Paintings series 2023 (illustrated) were completed in July 2023, made with natural pigments and ochres of red, yellow, black, white, brown and blue. The works feature references to Arebaa — from the Yuri words for ‘sun’ (are) and ‘moon’ (baa) — in motifs and colours; for example, where the dominant colour is white, this is a tribute to the moon. Some of the artworks also feature faces, skulls, birds and abstracted landscapes that highlight Haus Yuriyal’s intricate connection to land and nature, as well as expressing their strong brotherhood and ancestry.

Edited extract from the publication The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, 2024

Art that feeds the soul
Asia Pacific Triennial
Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art
30 November 2024 – 27 April 2025
Free entry