In 2012 at Gora Art Centre, Fate Savari presented a schoolbook she had obtained from her granddaughter. It was filled from front to back with drawings about her ancestral Ömie stories (including the creation story), histories, culture and clan designs. There were also some loose pages in the front and back of the schoolbook and more drawings on paper wrapped up in a larger drawing on paper. Fate created the book and drawings because she felt a great urgency to record her profound knowledge before she passed away. She used whatever materials she could find on hand. After presenting this first book, Fate requested “another book and drawing materials” so she could still create art during the seasons that she didn’t have any barkcloth to paint. So in 2014, Fate filled yet another drawing book with her art and this drawing is from that second collection of drawings.

Fate has drawn her brother’s land. Her brother’s name was Newman Gadai [1]. Depicted is Dahore Urobo (or Mount Urobo) and its headwaters, near old Enopé village. Fate is sharing her great knowledge of country—of Ömie territory—and her familial/clan ties to the land.

The borders are orriseegé or ‘pathways’ through the gardens and provide a compositional framework for the designs.

~ The chevron (arrow-tip) design is buborianö ’e, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus).

~ The small black infilled triangles are moköjö hwe ahe, the markings on the red chest feathers of the parrot. The moköjö bird appears in several Dahorurajé and Sahuoté clan stories. The birds often appear as a flock in the form of a cloud, stealing children or collecting deceased children and carrying them/delivering them to the Ancestor spirit villages high on the volcano Huvaimo and other mountaintops where deceased Ancestors reside. In the old stories, the parrots also commonly communicate and bring messages of warning to Ömie people.

~ The spots are jä’ino carticarti, representing the spotted markings that can be seen on a stone on the Uborida River south of the village of Gora. This is a significant site by at the swimming hole known as Maruro, and by the waterfall known as Juoho, where a footprint was left by a Nyonirajé clan man ancestor, as he ran and escaped from a cannibal spirit belonging to the Misajé clan. Fate explains the markings look as if a grub has dug holes in the stone and left the marks.

~ The lines that run diagonally are ije bi’weje, boys cutting the leaves of a tree. Fate explains: “The mother was cleaning the bush to make a garden with her two young sons. The boys climbed a tree to cut all of the branches and leaves down. The branches fell down and the mother took all of the leaves and threw them away. Then the mother got plenty of bananas, taro and yam to plant in their newly cleared garden. When they finished planting all of the plants, they ate all of the food from the garden and lived a long life.”

~ The curved lines are nenyai, a white seashell forehead adornment worn by women. Fate says these were made “in the times of the Ancestors” and are still worn today. Ömie people obtained the seashells from coastal tribes of Oro Province by means of trade and they also collected them from the beach. Seashells were a foreign, rare and beautiful material from the faraway coast so they were highly valued in the Ömie mountains and would be displayed as a form of wealth on both men and women’s jewelry. Fate’s father Lokirro told her about his travels to find and trade for seashells on the coast.

~ The criss-cross design is mi’ija’ahe, animal (wallaby) bones found while digging in the garden.

Note [1]: Newman was Aiden Gadai’s grandfather. Aiden Gadai is the husband of the late artist Aspasia Gadai.