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 PENNYROSE SOSA of Omie Artists. The title is Hartu’e – Cassowary breast-bone necklace. [15-088] (Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkcloth)) Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by PENNYROSE SOSA of Omie Artists. The title is Hartu’e – Cassowary breast-bone necklace. [15-088] (Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkcloth))
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PENNYROSE SOSA

Hartu’e – Cassowary breast-bone necklace
15-088
Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkcloth)
 Hartu’e – Cassowary breast-bon… | 15-088
Natural Pigments on Nioge (Barkclot…
 113 x 53cm | 44.49 x 20.87in (irregular)
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Pennyrose has painted the customary barkcloth design of hartu’e, representing the pendant of a necklace made from the breastbone of a cassowary. She was taught to paint this design by her mother Kiadora, who learnt from her mother, Pennyrose’s grandmother, Suwo.

Originally, “in the times of the ancestors”, the pendant was created from a shell which was obtained the from coastal tribes of Oro Province by means of trade and they also collected them from the beach. Most shell hartu’e and other shell necklaces that can still be found in the Ömie mountains were originally traded by the owners’ parents or grandparents a long time ago. These days the hartu’e “shell” pendant is fashioned from the breastbone of the cassowary to replicate the shell. Hartu’e have mouthpieces behind the shell which dancers bite to display in their mouths during ceremonial dance performances.

The border and line that runs through the middle of the work are known as orriseegé or ‘pathways’ and provide a compositional framework for the design. The black rows of triangles are dahoru’e, the design of the Ömie mountains.

Pennyrose has painted the customary barkcloth design of hartu’e, representing the pendant of a necklace made from the breastbone of a cassowary. She was taught to paint this design by her mother Kiadora, who learnt from her mother, Pennyrose’s grandmother, Suwo.

Originally, “in the times of the ancestors”, the pendant was created from a shell which was obtained the from coastal tribes of Oro Province by means of trade and they also collected them from the beach. Most...