Magdalene Bujava (Kolahi)

The border and bands that run through the work are known as orriseegé—pathways/paths—and provide a compositional framework for the design. The or’e (path) designs originate from the time of the ancestors and relate to the intricate footpaths that run through food gardens and garden plots.
The overall design is known as sogua’e and shows the ancestor’s customary process of salt formation/creation. This was from pre-contact times before the introduction of salt through trade. The interlocking spirals are sodirejé, rock minerals in the process of transformation. Ömie territory is a volcanic area with a complex geology and mineral rock salt was likely to have been harvested by the Ömie’s ancestors from certain sites. The first Ömie ancetsors, Mina and Suja, were created from a volcanic site (described as a primordial lake in their creation story) on Mount Ömie, which is the very first mountain of the greater volcanic range, Huvaimo (Mount Lamington). Similarly, this site is rich in minerals such as sulphur. Although certainty is now lost in time, one can hypothesise that these early salt/mineral designs relate directly to the sacred Ömie creation site on Mount Ömie. The work of Dahorurajé clan artist, Jean-Mary Warrimou (Hujama), gives us a clue that this very well may be the case, as she too has painted the design sodirejé—which she translates/describes similarly as rock crystals forming from minerals. When Jean-Mary was explaining her design, she told of how she was high on the sacred Mount Ömie, the first mountain, at the place where the mighty headwaters of the Girua River flow down. It is precisely here that the first man and woman, Mina and Suja, were created. At this site, Jean-Mary observed a curious phenomenon of rock forming on the waterfall rockface and then again in the river, built up from the high concentration of minerals from the volcanic water. This is believed to be sulphur. Using uehorëro (her own wisdom) she was inspired to create her design, sodirejé. There appears to be a direct correlation between these rock/mineral designs and the Mount Ömie creation site.
Text courtesy Ömie Artists.