This painting by Fate of mwe, mweje and or’e (gardens and paths through the garden) reveals, as Fate explains, that the lines commonly seen running throughout Ömie women’s paintings known as orriseegé or ‘pathways’, actually originate from the ancient mwe/mweje/or’e garden designs.

The border and intersecting lines are orriseegé or ‘pathways’ which, by intersecting, naturally form squares. These squares are, in fact, the main design of the painting, representing mweje (gardens) as well as providing a compositional framework for the other designs:

The crosshatch design and also the parallel stripes that bisect some of the squares are also mwe, land and gardens.

The design of four bulbous protrusions within the squares are deje, yams.

The short bristle-like design is known as ijo bunë, representing the roots of trees after they have been chopped down in order to clear the garden for planting food. Another short bristle-like design that can be seen is dubi dubi’e, representing the leaf of a rainforest vine.

The small black infilled triangles are mokojö anö’e, representing the beaks of the parrot.

The solid black triangles are mahuva’ojé (mahero mwe ijeh’e), pig’s hoofprints - showing how the garden has been trampled and destroyed by hungry pigs.

The circular concentrations of fine dots are ujë, bees.

The lines that run diagonally through the orriseegé 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 chevron (arrow-tip) design that run through the orriseegé is buboriano’e, beaks of Blyth’s Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus).

The dots within the orriseegé are sabu deje, 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 (Mt. 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. Today it is applied to Ömie people’s faces with natural pigments for dance performances.

The zig-zag design that runs through the orriseegé are mi’ija’ahe, animal bones.