Lila has painted an iconic design of her people, the Ömie, and quite strikingly, in a relatively pure form—which is rarely seen and masterfully innovative. These designs were taught to her by one of her mothers’ (her aunt), Joyce-Bella Mujorumo, former Duvahe (Chief) of Dahorurajé clan women.

The border and the irregular square frames are known as orriseegé or ‘pathways’ and provide a compositional framework for the designs. The or’e (path) designs originate from the time of the ancestors and relate to the intricate footpaths that run through food gardens and garden plots. The first mud-dyed barkcloths were simple, repetitive bands of simple vertical lines (either in appliqued mud-dyed barkcloth or painted with dark earth pigments likely to also be river ‘mud’) or representing these pathways through the garden of and are a design that may only be worn by maganahe duvahe (female Chiefs).

The orriseegé is infilled with sabu deje, a design representing the spots which can be seen on the sides of a wood-boring grub. This grub is sacred to Ömie people as it plays an important part within the creation story of how Huvaimo (Mount Lamington) came to be volcanic. It is a traditional sor’e (tattoo design) which was most commonly tattooed running in one line under both eyes.

The main zigzag design of taigu taigu’e represents the pattern seen on a leaf and originates from the time of the ancestors. It is an importrant body design tattoed during the Ujawé initiation rite which were performed in underground chambers, known as guai, hidden in the forest.

The infilled black triangle design is buboriano’e, representing the beaks of the Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus). Hornbills are the largest flying birds that can be found in the Ömie mountains. 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, the man then used his hornbill beak forehead adornment as a tool to chisel his way through the rock and into the light of the world.

The triangles infilled with black pigment within the orriseegé frames are the Dahorurajé clan design, mahuva’oje, the hoof-prints of a cheeky and mischievous pig that has wreaked havoc on a garden during the night.