Ayarra (rainy season)

Teho Ropeyarn is an artist and curator from Injinoo, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. He is descended from the Angkamuthi and Yadhaykana clans from Injinoo; the Kala Lagaw Ya and Meriam Mer peoples from Badu/Mulgrave Island, Moa/Banks Island and Mer/Murray Island in the Zenadth Kes/Torres Strait Islands; the Woppaburra peoples from Great Keppel Islands; and, the Badtjala people from K’gari/Fraser Island.

Ayarra (rainy season) 2022 was originally created for display in Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2021. The work reveals the cyclical relationship between water and land and shows the significance of the effects of seasons in the Cape York. The top form depicts water bodies and rain patterns, while the land below – a formation of plants that fruit or flower during wet season such as the mango, the yam and the Poinciana tree (delonix regina) – are represented as an ellipsis. For Ropeyarn, water is a metaphor for Country, and its movement across the landscape is like the transition of cultural knowledge and connectivity between traditional owners and the younger generation.

This print was pulled from multiple lino blocks meticulously carved by the artist over a period of weeks. Each impression took an individual day to print, and the work was printed by master printer David Jones in Brisbane.

Of his work, Ropeyarn said:
“Injinoo (and all Aboriginal) people are at one with the land, sea and sky. We traverse the physical, the natural and the spiritual realms. My work for the biennale [Ayarra – rainy season and Athumu Paypa Adthinhuunamu (My birth certificate)] is a visual depiction of this philosophy – explaining how the land becomes the human, the human becomes the animal, the animal becomes the land, the land becomes the spirit, and the spirit becomes a device linking these elements. The land will only listen to its people.” Teho Ropeyarn, 2022