Fate Savari began painting for Omie Artists in 2009—and in the period 2010-2012—she produced only four paintings with highly sacred subject matter, revealing details of the Creation story hitherto unknown to the outside world. Apart from Rex Warrimou she is the only Omie artist to ever do so, but was the very first. This work stands as one of the most important works ever produced by any Omie artist due to its sacred content and the profoundly confident and detailed artistic execution.

This is the Story of how Mina, the first man, stole the fire from Insa, the woman weaver of Huvaimo exactly as Fate Savari remembers the story (*translated by Rapheal Bujava and transcribed by Brennan King at Gora Art Centre, Gora village, January 2012). In Fate’s version of the story, at this time, she refers to Insa simply as “the woman”, and Mina, the first male ancestor, as “the man”. This story is a part of the Ömie creation story.

THE STORY OF THE OLD WOMAN BILUM-WEAVER, INSA OF HUVAIMO, AND THE STOLEN FIRE*

This is a legend story. Beginning of the woman’s story. The same woman has a bird and it is picking up the fruit.

Before, there was one old woman living on Huvaimo (Mount Lamington) and she was weaving a bilum. When she was weaving the bilum she lit a fire where she was sitting down. There was a man and he was sitting on Mount Obo and he was living there. The man would hunt and catch plenty of animals to eat, but he did not have fire so the man could not cook the animals he caught. So he said, “I have plenty of animals to eat but no food, so I have to go and look for fire.”

He saw the light on Huvaimo where the woman was sitting, weaving the bilum. The man went near Huvaimo and was trying to reach the fire but he could not reach it because the mountain was so high. So he went back to Manenobehi, to the bush, to find bush bamboo. He was trying to steal the fire from the woman. He found bamboo to reach up and steal the fire. He went back to Huvaimo with the bamboo. He reached up with the bamboo but it was not long enough so he went back to get more bamboo. He tied the bamboo together and this time he was able to reach the fire and steal it. The woman was busy weaving the bilum so she did not see him steal the fire.

The man took the fire back to his home on Mount Obo. He cut firewood and stones to cook the animals he had killed. While the man was heating the stones to create the fire to cook the meat, the woman looked around and saw that her fire was gone. She saw small pieces of fire on the ground and looked across to Mount Obo and saw the big fire with smoke rising up. She left her bilum and put her hands up on her head, very worried and angry, saying, “Who came and stole my fire?!” She was yelling from Huvaimo to the man at Mount Obo, saying, “You stole my fire so you are going to be old and your teeth will fall out and when you hunt it will be hard for you to find animals to kill!!” She cursed him. She said he could only get married to a woman in his own family, not with any woman he wants. She said he will live for a few years and suffer and then he will die.

The woman from Huvaimo went and gathered food from the garden. Then, from the top of Huvaimo, she threw the food out to the people. She got angry and shared the food with the Managalasi people all the way down to Musa. But the small food she gave to the Ömie people. She punished the Ömie people with only small food because the man stole the fire. The food was in the bilum that she was sharing with the people. The End.

Fate has painted the woman (Insa) and the bamboo grove where the bird, Ninivo, lived.
She has painted an uge (bird), ‘mokojai’, eating fruit (ije baje) the fruit of the tree.

Fate has also painted the food that the woman (Insa) distributed from her bilum (woven string-bag), including:

deje ohu’o bere’e — yams
webe, webo’uhé, webo ov’e — cuscus, cuscus tails and paws
mahu siman’e — head of the pig
mwa’e (cobar’e) — red fruit of the vine
jebe (jowomi’e) — eel fish
sivaju diehe —bird-of-paradise and bird-of paradise feathers
lamodi’e ohu’o lamodi baje — leaf and fruit o- a small tree that grows on the mountain slopes and in the valleys
gijemwé — nut
sigob’e — snakes
vedwé — taboo wild banana trees (when Ömie people pass a grove of wild banana trees in the forest, they do not speak and remain completely quiet. Eating it is taboo.)
gwedé — small echidnas
ha’uje — betelnut plants
rowon’e ohu’o rowonu hor’e — tree kangaroos and legs and feet of the tree kangaroo
on’e — fruit/nut of the vine
sö’i — chestnuts
mwa’e — customary salt (cane)
vajiogé — white yams
juwai — coconuts
suhé — red pandanus
uge bioje — bird preparing to fly
im’e — sugarcane.

Other designs that can be seen in this painting are:

mahuva’oje — pig hoof-prints in the food garden
ije biweje — boys chopping tree branches
mi’ija’ahe — old animal (wallaby) bones found while digging in the garden
nenyai — women’s white seashell forehead adornment
buborianö’e — beaks of the Papuan Hornbill
sabu deje — spots of the wood-boring grub
mokojo bineb’e — chest feathers of the red parrot
gori hane — Dahorurajé clan design of the fern leaf
ug’e dehe — bird-of-paradise feathers.