Helen has painted a very beautiful, spirited design of the Ina’e clan.

The lines that run through the work are known as orriseegé or ‘pathways’ and provide a compositional framework for the designs. The or’e (path) designs are ancient and originate from the time of the Ancestors and relate to the intricate footpaths that run through food gardens and garden plots.

The arching/chevron designs are dahoru’e, the design of the Ömie mountains and hills. These design relate to the sacred ancestral geography of Ömie territory. Throughout the main design is the virijo sor’e, the leaf mrkings of the woven mat.

The black, infilled triangle design is bubori anö’e, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus). Hornbills are the largest flying birds that can be found in the Ömie mountains. In the ancient story of how the first group of people emerged onto the surface of the earth from Awai’i underground cave at a site known as Vavago, one man [who cannot be named due to current Ömie jagor’e (law)], used his hornbill beak forehead adornment as a tool to chisel his way through the rock and into the light of the world.

Copyright for the text remains with Ömie Artists Inc.

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