Fate has painted a traditional nioge (barkcloth skirt) design of the Dahorurajé clan. The main arching motif is of worro worrë, the matabuté (turtle) shell pendant which were made in the times of the ancestors. Turtle shell was a foreign, rare and beautiful material from the faraway coast so it was highly valued in the Ömie mountains and would be displayed as a form of wealth on necklaces. So highly valued, the worro worrë also became an important barkcloth design and was painted onto nioge, just as Fate has painted here. Fate’s father Lokirro told her about his travels to find turtle shells on the coast. He told her how the people living on the coast would hunt and kill the turtles but would leave the turtle shells on the beach. The Ömie would search for them and carry the turtle shell in one whole piece back up to the Ömie mountains. It is important to note that while the main arching motif is worro worrë, the turtle shell pendant, there is a smaller design representing the same thing painted similarly within the larger one. There are also similar slanted arching motifs which are not the jewelry but simply the turtle shell fragments as they are before being crafted into jewelry. These turtle shell fragments are referred to as ‘worro worrë in’e in’e’.

The border and lines that run through the work are known as orriseegé or ‘pathways’ and provide a compositional framework for the designs. This painting is particularly significant in this regard as you can clearly see how Fate has seamlessly merged the orriseegé pathways with the design. This is a rarely seen and takes great surety and experience as an artist to combine these elements so organically and seemingly effortlessly. It is a clear marker of a master Ömie painter.

Many other designs can be seen painted within the main design and the orriseegé, including:

~ ov’e, representing a human hand.

~ arére ajivé, daybreak (first light of the sun on the horizon).

~ The short bristle-like design is ijo bunobun’e (sometimes referred to as ijo bunë), representing the roots of trees after they have been chopped down in order to clear the garden for planting food.

~ dubi han’e, leaves of the dubi’e tree.

~ mwe, food gardens.

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

~ The spots are known as 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 (Mount 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 for dance performances with natural pigments.

~ The slanting lines are ije biweje, representing 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 criss-cross designs are mi’ija’ahe, animal bones found while digging in the garden.

~ The small black infilled triangles are moköjö bineb’e, the red chest feathers of the parrot.
(Note: 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.)