Nom’e Javavamu Darugé I’jové (We Dance Our Designs to Life)

A Collection of Barkcloth Art from the Ömie Artists, Papua New Guinea

Nom’e Javavamu Darugé I’jové (We Dance Our Designs to Life)

A Collection of Barkcloth Art from the Ömie Artists, Papua New Guinea

Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by MALA NARI (MATOSI) of Omie Artists. The title is Dahoru’e, hitai, buborianö’e ohu’o tuböre une – Ömie mountains, river boulders, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill and eggs of the Dwarf Cassowary. [14-105] (Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkcloth)) Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by MALA NARI (MATOSI) of Omie Artists. The title is Dahoru’e, hitai, buborianö’e ohu’o tuböre une – Ömie mountains, river boulders, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill and eggs of the Dwarf Cassowary. [14-105] (Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkcloth))
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MALA NARI (MATOSI)

Dahoru’e, hitai, buborianö’e ohu’o tuböre une – Ömie mountains, river boulders, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill and eggs of the Dwarf Cassowary
Dahoru’e, hitai, buborianö’e ohu’o tuböre une – Ömie mountains, river...

14-105
Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkcloth)
 Dahoru’e, hitai, buborianö’e o… | 14-105
Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkclot…
 184 x 128cm | 72.44 x 50.39in (irregular)
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Mala has painted Dahoru’e, the design of the Ömie mountains. Within each mountain is the hitai design, representing river boulders. This is an important site where Mala’s Ancestors defeated the invading Orokaivan tribesmen. The rows of small black triangles like sawtooths at their edges are buborianö’e, the beaks of the Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus).

In one version of the story of how the first Ömie Ancestors emerged onto the surface of the earth from Awai’i underground cave at Vavago, a man used his hornbill beak forehead adornment as a tool to chisel his way through the rock and into the light of the world.

The bands running through the work are known as orriseegé or (paths/pathways) and provide a compositional framework for the designs.

This is a customary barkcloth blanket, which, like Ömie women’s barkcloth skirts, are also called nioge.

It is the largest nioge painted in the period 2009 – 2015.

Mala has painted Dahoru’e, the design of the Ömie mountains. Within each mountain is the hitai design, representing river boulders. This is an important site where Mala’s Ancestors defeated the invading Orokaivan tribesmen. The rows of small black triangles like sawtooths at their edges are buborianö’e, the beaks of the Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus).

In one version of the story of how the first Ömie Ancestors emerged onto the surface of the earth...