![Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) artwork by FATE SAVARI (ISAWDI) of Omie Artists. The title is Webo ove ohu’o vene vitwé Dahore Obo - Story of the paws of the cuscus and Mina and Suja’s first fire on Mount Obo. [12-202] (Ink on Schoolbook Paper)](https://media.redotgallery.com/stockroom/gallery/w/webo-ove-ohuo-vene-vitwc3a9-dahore-obo-story-of-the-paws-of-the-cuscus-and-mina-and-sujas-first-fire-5527.png)
FATE SAVARI (ISAWDI) (dec)
12-202
Ink on Schoolbook Paper
Webo ove ohu’o vene vitwé Daho… | 12-202
Ink on Schoolbook Paper
17 x 22.5cm | 6.69 x 8.86in (irregular)
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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 Ömie 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. This is one of the special drawings from that first presentation of drawings.
Fate has drawn an integral part of the second part of the creation story of Mina and Suja, the first people. Mina, the first man and Suja, the first woman, were living together at Mount Obo. Mina stole the first fire from Insa (also known as Vitara), the old woman who lived right on top of Huvaimo (Mount Lamington). Mina and Suja did not yet realise that wood could be used to keep fires burning or that they could eat animals. They would use dried animal parts (instead of firewood) to keep the stolen fire burning. Fate explains further:
“Mina and Suja went hunting early one morning and caught a cuscus (webe). They went back to their house on Mount Obo and in the afternoon they cut the cuscus up into pieces and placed the meat on hot stones. They then covered the meat with leaves and left it to cook. When they saw that the cuscus meat was cooked they took it inside the house and hung it above the stolen fire to dry out. They kept the stolen fire burning using the dried cuscus meat.”
The circles are webo owo’guminë, the paws of the webe (cuscus). The cuscus paws are in the vene vitwé, Mina and Suja’s cooking site/fireplace where they would cook the animal meat which was used to keep the stolen fire burning on their home at Mount Obo.
Fate learnt this nioge design from her mother Majaho, a Dahorurajé clanwoman from the old Dahorurajé clan village of Sidonejo. This village was closest to the sacred Mount Obo.