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.

This an ancestral story about a Spirit-man (a Dahoruraje clan Ancestor). He was thirsty so he climbed the tree and chopped the coconut branches down. He used a coconut shell (une) as a drinking vessel. He drank the water from a jov’e, small creek. He kept the une is his esoe (woven string-bag or bilum). When the man took a drink from the small creek with his coconut shell cup, he sang:

OMIE: “Une gasirori labujowomabahe wéveve!”
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: “Oh what a nice spoon I am drinking from and now I feel OK!”

This is a history from Lokirro’s clan. Lokirro was fate’s father, a Dahoruraje clanman. Fate has simply (and poetically) drawn the juworé, insects that walk on the surface of the water. These insects are associated with the small creek of this ancestral story.

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

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

~ 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.”