Lila has painted an important design for the Dahorurajé clan, avino’e, the design of the Moon. Lila explains that she was taught this design by her aunt, Joyce-Bella Mujorumo, former Duvahe (Chief) of Dahorurajé clan women. This special design can be traced back to Udu’a, Lokirro’s wife. Udu’a then taught Joyce-Bella Mujorumo. The story associated with the moon design can be read below.
The borders around the edges of the nioge are known as orriseegé or ‘pathways’, providing a compositional framework for the main designs. The black, infilled sawtooth designs are dahoru’e, the design of the Ömie mountains. These design relate to the sacred ancestral geography of Ömie territory. The small zig-zag/triangular deigns are buboriano’e, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus). Hornbills are the largest flying birds that can be found in the Ömie mountains. In the same story of how the first Ömie Ancestors emerged onto the surface of the earth from Awai’i underground cave at Vavago, the man then used his hornbill beak forehead adornment as a tool to chisel his way through the rock and into the light of the world. The three-pronged symbols are gojavö hanö’e, the tailfeathers of the red and black parrot used in men’s feather headdresses. The spots within the concentric circles of the moon design are known as sabu deje representing the spots that 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 also 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.
Text courtesy Ömie Artists.