THE ART OF ISAWDI (FATE SAVARI)

THE ART OF ISAWDI (FATE SAVARI)

RE D O T FINE ART GALLERY

in collaboration with Ömie Artists presents

The Art of Isawdi (Fate Savari)

A Collection of Barkcloth Art and Works on Paper from the Ömie Artists, Papua New Guinea 1 Nov – 1 Dec 2021

Online Exhibition

ReDot Fine Art Gallery has endeavoured to bring the best of the Australian Indigenous Art scene to our public—wherever in the world they may be—for almost 20 years now. Yes almost 20 years! Within our fiercely guarded gallery mission statement, we have relentlessly followed our goal of education, rarely deviating into other genres. When we have made these rare exceptions, it has been because the work is/was both complimentary to our core mission, adding to the artistic and anthropological discourse we have wanted to develop, and because the work is/was, to us at least, exceptional, and worthy of inclusion.

The artwork of the Ömie Artists collective of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been one of these rare diversions. From the very first time, almost 15 years ago, that this exciting artform was introduced to me I found it compelling and aesthetically breathtaking, with numerous fascinating crossovers with the indigenous art movement I have spent almost half my life studying and collecting.

THE ART OF ISAWDI (FATE SAVARI) is a fitting climax to our journey with the artists of the Oro Province of PNG, who live far in the remote country of Mount Lamington. This first ever solo show of barks by Isawdi is monumental. To then be able to introduce a suite of 88 works on paper, documenting the ancestral origins of the Ömie people is simply astonishing.

This suite of never seen before works on paper, draws parallels to the 1971-1972 Papunya boards. These extraordinary works are an explosion of artistic knowledge, transposed to a medium more familiar to the global public, allowing a permanent marker and representation of her culture for future generations of Ömie. The measure of Isawdi’s importance to Ömie culture cannot be overstated.

Isawdi is to Ömie what Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi, Kaapa Tjampitjinpa and Johnny Warrangkula Tjupurrula, to name but three, are to the pioneers of the early Papunya Tula Art Movement.

Another parallel that comes to mind is the Yirrkala crayon drawings of 1947, an unrivalled document of Yolngu knowledge and law. These 365 works were made by the senior leaders of the Yirrkala community through their collaboration with the anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt.1 The major difference is that Isawdi’s works on paper were a self-initiated desire to share culture, not encouraged by external forces. The painstaking documentation of the Yirrkala drawings done by the Berndt’s is—in this instance of Isawdi’s works—undertaken by the relentless passion of Brennan King, the Ömie Artists manager, to ensure that this culture is preserved as accurately as possible for future generations.

Isawdi’s work is the pith—the absolute essence of her culture. She is the indisputable master of Ömie art of her generation. This body of work will never be presented and can never be repeated again, it is truly a once in a lifetime exhibition which we are so proud to be the custodial gallery to be honoured to share it with the world.

Isawdi’s work can be viewed in institutional collections around the world, with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), being a very early supporter of this artistic powerhouse along with Museum Victoria too. International institutions such as the Fowler Museum at the UCLA, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge and the British Museum also boast collections of Isawdi’s art.

Please note, as a mark of deep respect for the artist and her culture, we are using Fate’s Ömie birth name—Isawdi (only)— throughout this catalogue, although she always exhibited previously as Fate Savari (Isawdi).

May 2021

Giorgio Pilla

ReDot Fine Art Gallery

Isawdi wearing nioge she painted, Gora Art Centre, January 2010

I © B. King

SEEING THROUGH THE EYES OF THE HEART: THE ART OF ISAWDI (FATE SAVARI)

by Brennan King

Acknowledgement

Firstly, I would like to thank the artist, the late Isawdi (Fate Savari), whose luminous spirit has been my guiding light from the very first day I met her in 2010. People talk of someone being a pleasure to work with, but my time with her are moments I will treasure forever. My life has been enriched beyond anything I could have ever possibly dreamed up through my time working closely with her. The greater history of Ömie barkcloth art remains intact through the wisdom contained within the exquisite body of work she produced, 2010-2019. I know future generations of Ömie will look to her paintings in reverence. The world is fortunate to have had such a beautiful and special person as part of it for a time. The art that she left behind is an absolute precious gift to this earth. Isawdi—I know you know I will never forget you and I send all my love. I hope you are at peace with your Ancestors on Huvaimo. This is for you.

I would like to also thank the ever-patient, Giorgio Pilla of ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore, without whom this exhibition—Isawdi’s first solo show—could not have been possible. On behalf of Isawdi—I thank you for your extraordinary dedication and support and for bringing this very special exhibition to fruition.

Finally, I would like thank my Ömie translators—Alban Saré and Raphael Bujava. The world would never have had the chance to know Isawdi’s magic without your dedicated work.

Sacred Lands

To the north of Australia, on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean lies the large, mountainous island of Papua New Guinea. In the remote and rugged interior mountains of the southeast is the land of the Ömie people, a paradise of jungle-clad peaks, often cloaked in mist and cloud.

The old village2 known as Sidonejo was nestled high on a peak, right beside the sacred site of Mount Obo—the original home where the first people of the world, Mina and Suja, lived. Sidonejo was perfectly positioned so that the Ömie could easily watch over the highly sacred creation site where the whole world began—Mount Ömie—which is one of the peaks of the greater volcanic caldera known as Huvaimo (Mount Lamington).

Huvaimo is the beating heart of Ömie culture. It was upon Mount Ömie, that the Lizard-God Uhöeggö’e formed the first man, Mina, and the first woman, Suja, from the freshwater of a primordial lake. Mount Ömie also shrouds the invisible Spirit village where all Ömie Ancestors reside. This is where Ömie people return upon death, their spirits carried there by clouds of spirit-parrot flocks. The moköjö

Ömie mountains and clouds

I ©

B. King

(red parrot) flies from Huvaimo to Ömie villages, bringing messages of warning from the Ancestors. Utibuno, the poisonous snake that created underground tunnels and spread fire to Huvaimo, lives on Mount Ömie beside a cave named Savodobehi3. And Ninivo, the beautiful red bird-of-paradise remains trapped forever on the mountain inside a bamboo grove. The old woman Ancestor, Vetara4, the first bilum-weaver who sparked and guarded the first fire, lives alone on Huvaimo’s highest peak, Mount Madorajo’amoho5.

As presaged in Ömie nioge (barkcloth), oral history and song, Huvaimo is a place to be respected and feared. Many foolish boys have wandered into Huvaimo’s peaks, become lost, never to return, or have been carried away by dark clouds to the mysterious Spirit-village. Jagor’e (customary laws) must be followed strictly when approaching, and while upon, the mountain. In this land of Ancestors and Spirits, you may only whisper softly, and urinating, defecating, spitting and fornicating are forbidden. In times of storms and floods the Ömie turn to Huvaimo to appeal to their Ancestors to quell the punishing weather with elaborate offerings and songs of prayer. From the ridge of the village, the

The sacred Mt. Ömie, the first mountain and creation site of Mina and Suja

I © B. King

songs echo hauntingly through the deep mountain valleys to Huvaimo. This sacred place holds all of the elemental powers of the Ömie Ancestors. It incites both awe and trepidation, and is closely watched over and protected by the Ömie’s Dahorurajé6 clan.

Directly down the mountain from Sidonejo village, runs the pure, sparkling waters of the Uhojo River, which flow down from Huvaimo’s lofty headwaters. It was by this very river that Suja, the first female Ancestor, beat the very first nioge (barkcloth skirt), as instructed by her husband, Mina. She removed the inner layer of bark from the Sih’e tree, rinsed it in the water, and using a heavy stone mallet she pounded the bark on a flat stone—thinning out the bark to create a wearable skirt. Suja dyed the plain barkcloth in volcanic clay deposits and wore this ‘mud-dyed’ barkcloth skirt for the duration of her menses, living in seclusion in a small hut known as jé’o jarwé7. When she returned to her husband Mina on top of Mount Obo, she wore a plain undyed, natural-white barkcloth. The Uhojo River is the location where Ömie women’s barkcloth originates and is an integral and sacred site to Ömie spiritual beliefs, history, art and culture.

Surrounding Sidonejo, the verdant rainforests were filled with extraordinary creatures such as—the Papuan hornbill; Dwarf cassowary; numerous species of birds-of-paradise; Long-beaked echidna; Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo; the largest butterfly in the world, Queen Alexandra’s birdwing; Giant spiny stick insect; Green python; Eclectus parrots; and cuscus. Age-old paths sprawled out from the village. Some led to food gardens set on mountain ridges. Some to well-trodden hunting tracks that disappeared into the seemingly impenetrable green of the forest. And some were the way to other clans in neighbouring Ömie villages such as Duharenu, Ab’i8 and Enopé9. To the east lived the Managalas, a people who—in time beginning—were one people with the Ömie, emerging from the same underground cave, Awai’i at Vavago, and into the light of the world. Directly to the north lived the Orokaiva, the enemy of the Ömie, who would often attack and raid Ömie villages. The Ömie always chose elevated locations to build their villages, as this gave them a significant defensive advantage over the Orokaiva.

Isawdi of Sidonejo

It was in Sidonejo that the grand, old majestic mango tree stood where the rare—almost mythological— white bird-of-paradise lived. In this idyllically located village, perched deep in the mountain cloudforests, sprung an extraordinary and sophisticated painting tradition. Having developed sometime after the beating of the first barkcloth by the first female Ancestor, Suja, barkcloth paintings by her descendants—Suja’s daughters—flourished. The efflorescence of barkcloth painting as the Ömie’s primary artform and medium was intrinsically informed by the Creation story’s narrative of instructions, as played out by their first Ancestors, Mina and Suja. Barkcloth is an essential textile, having both practical and ceremonial uses. It is worn by women as skirts (nioge); by men as elongated loincloths (givai); used for both adult and children’s blankets (nioge), as ‘bride-price’ gifts in marriage ceremonial exchange; and for wrapping the deceased. With fern designs tattooed on their cheeks, the women of the Dahorurajé—the ‘People of the Mountain’10—engaged in an astonishing artistic movement deeply versed in abstract symbolism and ancestral aesthetics based on the natural world, Ömie cosmology, culture and history. Here, in the village of Sidonejo, which was completely unknown to and untouched by the outside world, circa 1933, Isawdi (Fate Savari) was born.

Isawdi’s parents both belonged to the Dahorurajé clan of Sidonejo. Her mother was Majaho, and she was the illegitimate daughter of the legendary warrior, Dahorurajé clan Duvahe (male chief), Lokirro11. This is one of the essential keys to understanding how she came to be one of the most important painters of her generation. Being the illegitimate daughter of the clan leader, Lokirro, meant that from birth she was left in the care of her mother Majaho. Without the direct presence of Isawdi’s father, Majaho was dependent on the help of her mother and eldest daughter to help raise Isawdi. So Isawdi was brought up in an incredibly strong circle of women, consisting of her mother, grandmother (named Jario), and sister (named Guo’ahörumö), who were all exceptionally skilled barkcloth painters. She would however, on occasion, spend time with her father, the clan Chief, and she learnt the Creation story and all Dahorurajé clan stories and histories from him.

At this time, the Ujawé12 initiation tattooing and piercing rituals and the Sumanai funerary rites were still partly practiced in Sidonejo (however, there is no record remaining of to what degree). Many of Isawdi’s clan were tattooed and initiated in accordance with traditional Ömie customs, including Isawdi herself13. The Dahorurajé clan were intensely wary of outsiders such as Christian missionaries and linguists14. They defended their territory and were able to stop them from ever visiting or establishing a church in Sidonejo. With the great fortune of being located deep in the remote mountains, Sidonejo remained a refuge of Ömie culture for far longer than outlying, more easily accessible villages, such as the lower altitude mountain villages of Asapa and Budo.

And so here in the village of Sidonejo, between the sacred sites of Mount Obo and Huvaimo and above Uhojo River where Suja created the first barkcloth, among a tight-knit circle of birir’e maganahe (strong women), Isawdi grew up. Her mothers15 taught her all the wisdom of the Ancestors, especially

about Ömie art and culture, and by the time she was a young woman she was already exceptionally knowledgeable about the Ömie creation story and associated barkcloth iconography; a myriad of ancestral clan stories; stories linked to sacred and historic sites; an encyclopaedic array of barkcloth designs passed on directly from the time of the first Ancestors; both Ömie and clan-specific histories; and sin’e sor’e (tattoo designs) of the Ujawé initiation rite. From birth, Isawdi was raised within a culture untouched by the outside world, that had little to no contact with the first explorers (of European descent). Isawdi trained in barkcloth painting to a customary level of attainment in a strong and unbroken ancestral lineage. In her biographical statement from 2014, she explains,

“When I was young, I used to live with my mother at old Sidonejo village near the volcano, Huvaimo. I always stayed with her learning to mix red, yellow and black coloured pigments and I learnt where to find everything I need to make barkcloth in the forest. I learnt everything when I lived at Sidonejo.” 16

Isawdi’s earliest experience of outsiders was during World War II in 1942-1943. She explains that the war was fought at Buna17 and that a plane had flown from the direction of a place called Sigareeta.

Ömie village that protects the sacred Mount Obo (background), home of the first people Mina and Suja I © B. King

Isawdi was around 10 years old and recollects,

“I was in the house with my family at Sidonejo when we first heard a warplane flying over. When we went outside and saw the plane my parents gathered up my family and we ran as quickly as we could towards our new yam garden and hid ourselves in the bush under a tree.” 18

And in her biographical statement from 2014, she recalls her first sighting of a “towa”19 (white person) when she travelled down from the mountains, to the lowland plains,

“We were living in the bush like our Ancestors. When I was a girl, I saw Bamu Tenny start to build the town [Popondetta Agricultural Station] with sago leaf rooves. At that time there was no school and no airport. 20

In 1951, when Isawdi was around 1721 years of age, she witnessed the eruption of the Ömie’s sacred volcano, Huvaimo. Her birthplace, the village of Sidonejo, was completely destroyed and her mother took her to Kinado village in the Gora valley to live. They then moved to Ga’enu, then to Sigareeta, then to Asapa. Isawdi married a man from old Godibehi village and lived with him there for some time before he passed away. Shortly after, she moved back to Savodobehi, the new village close to Mount Obo that was established by the Dahorurarjé clan after Sidonejo’s destruction. Later she remarried Fall Savari of the Evorajé clan, and moved with him to Anahobehi village in the Gora valley. During this time Isawdi was given a Christian name Fate22 Savari. Much of her life was spent raising their seven children and gardening with Fall by his land around Uborida (Jordan River), where she came to know that country and its stories intimately.

Untrammelled Lore

The early twentieth-century, prior to 1943, was a period of very little contact from outsiders within Ömie territory. Only oral history recorded from elders such as Willington Uruhé23, Nanati (Albert Sirimi) and Isawdi remains of this period so exact details are scarce. After 1906, some Australian officials and missionaries passed through and made contact with the Ömie in the village of A’bi, and Australian soldiers were based very briefly at Gora during World War II. It is highly likely that the interior villages of Sidonejo, Duharenu, old Godibehi and Enopé were the last Ömie villages that remained the strongholds of a wholly or relatively undisturbed and untrammelled Ömie culture prior to World War II (The Battle of Kokoda and the Battle of Buna–Gona) in 1942-1943 and the eruption of Mount Lamington in 1951. Barai-born artist, Lina Hojéva24, has said that it was her father, Gagamo Regena25, who brought the first European man (who stayed, with a view to proselytise the Ömie) into Ömie territory after the war in 1943.

The mid twentieth-century was a period of enormous change for the Ömie. The Christian missionaries were establishing themselves within Ömie territory in the villages of Asapa, Gorabuna and Gora and had banned the Ujawé initiation and Sumanai funerary rituals. Without the Ujawé, the body art which was integral to Ömie cultural identity was endangered. When Huvaimo erupted in 1951, the Dahorurajé clan Chiefs, Warrimou and Nogi, believed the eruption was a strong message from their Ancestors who reside on the mountain—a warning that the Ancestors were angry that the old ways were being lost and that the Ömie must resist the outsiders and hold onto their own, true culture. In an attempt to appease their Ancestors, the Chiefs lead an internally prompted effort to preserve Ömie art. They responded by spreading word to the other villages, encouraging all women to continue creating barkcloth art, and to begin painting the men’s Ujawé tattoo designs onto the barkcloth also. And so, triumphantly, the Ömie managed to preserve their time-honoured and sacred barkcloth art form, as well as the Ujawé symbolism.

Isawdi’s life spanned this unprecedented period that would see immense and irreversible changes to the Ömie’s customary way of life. Yet she never lost the knowledge and skills she had learnt from her mothers during her early life at Sidonejo, carrying them with her to call upon throughout her entire life. Although the Ömie artist cooperative began in 2004, it was not until 2008 that the cooperative could effectively begin to facilitate the artists in her remote village of Anahobehi in the Gora valley26. Isawdi is one of the leading Ömie painters who has significantly contributed to the preservation of the medium of barkcloth painting as well as the Ujawé iconography (through barkcloth painting) well into the twenty-first century.

During the 2002-2021 period of the Ömie artist cooperative27 there were only three surviving female Ömie barkcloth painters born before 1933—a decade prior to missionary influence in 1943 and a period we can identify, with certainty, that experienced little disturbance or influence from outsiders. These artists were Filma Rumono28 (born c.1927), Mary Naumo29 (born c.1930), and Isawdi (born c.1933)30

These women had undergone the Ujawé initiation in some iteration with facial and body tattooing. Filma Rumono was the last surviving Ömie woman who had her nasal septum pierced and wore eel-bone jewellery (vison’e) through her nose, indicating that her initiation may have been entirely in line with the complete tradition. While very few paintings by Mary Naumo and Filma Rumono were produced in the early period of the cooperative from 2002-200631, Isawdi produced a significant body of work between 2008-2019 and exhibited regularly internationally.

Stylistically, there are subtle yet identifiable differences in the paintings produced by the firstcontact generation (born pre-1935) of artists when compared to the paintings of the succeeding generation (born 1935-1960). While the succeeding generation undoubtedly produce/d phenomenal paintings of unshakeable cultural integrity with clearly traceable ancestral lineages, it is important to understand such differences in order to establish a firm art historical ground by which Ömie art can be understood before colonial/missionary influence. The paintings of Isawdi set a benchmark for such understanding, both visually and through her profound depth of cultural knowledge.

Aesthetically, the overarching discernible characteristic is her confident approach of mark-making that appears to be soft-edged and loose, with very organic geometries that are not overly structured. There is also an interchangeability of composition, where the rulebook seems to go out the window, but somehow is still entirely within cultural parameters. For example, orriseegé or ‘pathways’ are the lines which are the foundation for all Ömie barkcloth painting. The pathways are always painted first and become a framework for the main designs. In Isawdi’s paintings the pathways are never laid down perfectly straight and there seems to be a relaxed—but no less deliberate—quality to her approach. This method is consistent with the paintings of other artists of her generation, Filma Rumono and Mary Naumo32. Isawdi’s pathways are often curvilinear—wild even—and never feel rigid. On occasion they are barely even there at all and the design takes centre stage. Isawdi’s is a confident, unrestrained and free form of mark-making with a flowing naturalism that allows the eye to wander across the painting with ease.

Another delineating factor, that points to a generational stylistic shift, is the impressive multiplicity of barkcloth designs that Isawdi paints—which numbers in the hundreds. This is in striking contrast to the amount of designs known and painted by the artist with the most designs in the subsequent generation, whose designs number under fifty. An investigation of the meanings and nature of Isawdi’s visual language will reveal the remarkable and beautiful intricacies of her profound knowledge and much about the inimitable attributes of Ömie barkcloth art (please see Chapter Five: The Nioge).

Jubujé

On the occasion of my first visit to Ömie territory in the summer of 2009-201033, Ömie Artists’ Manager, Alban Saré, informed me that a new art centre would be opened at Gora in the Gora valley. It would be the final village I visited on that particular journey. Gora is comprised of four small villages including Kinado, Anahobehi, Borrohojë and Jöja. Gora Art Centre was situated between Kinado and Anahobehi and beside the Uhojo River (Jordan River). From the day I arrived, I was told by my security staff and dear friends, Tony Oviro and Jevron Savari, about an eminent artist at Gora—her name was… Isawdi. Tony said, “She is my sister and, oh!! She is the best painter for Ömie people!” And Jevron continued, “She is my mother and she is a great painter, she knows all of the stories for Ömie!” As I travelled gradually through each Ömie village, there were many more accounts of Isawdi and her talents, and I became increasingly excited to meet her.

After a challenging day’s hike with the team through thick mud and flooding rivers, I was finally nearing Gora. I could hear the drumming and singing and was in bewilderment at how loud it was. I had experienced lots of singing and dancing in every village along the journey but nothing quite like this. It was utterly thunderous and must have penetrated every crack, corner and crevice of the forest, valley and mountains for kilometres. Walking closer and closer toward the roar, I came up over a hill and suddenly, I was rushed by six men yielding enormous wooden clubs, swinging one after the other towards my head. I was nearly frightened to death and had no idea what was happening. This was the traditional welcome of the Ömie of Gora—a fierce display of power and strength by warriors. Some welcome! The clubs came so close to my head, but in every instance just stopped short. I was frozen in absolute terror. I was only 28 years old at the time but I swear, I almost had a heart attack! My “security guards” and the team were behind me laughing hysterically. The bodies of the men were painted with natural mud, and their faces were painted with a contrasting, dark-coloured mud. Two men had pig-jawbones strapped to their faces, which had been painted with red pigment. Five of the men wore grass skirts but one of the men wore an extraordinary givai (men’s barkcloth) unlike anything I had seen across all of Ömie territory. Something about it felt different… filled with symbolism and mysteries I had not yet encountered. That was my first sighting of a barkcloth painting by Isawdi. And my first, albeit terrifying, encounter with it could not have been more perfect.

Behind the painted-mud warriors, was a long, tall fence structure made of palm fronds, banana leaves and bamboo. The art centre was hidden behind the fence and there was one entry door… made of barkcloth of course! Nothing could have prepared me for what lay beyond that door. As I entered, still rattled from the warriors “welcome”, all of Gora had gathered for the opening celebrations. Most people were in full traditional dress with extraordinary bird-feather headdresses, cuscus fur headpieces, pig tusk jewellery, draped in floral and seed garlands, and wearing exquisitely patterned barkcloths. They were dancing in procession, weaving in and out, backwards and forwards, beating their drums, and the song was the most magnificent song you could ever possibly imagine. It rung all

the way through my spirit. There were three old women huddled together dancing and singing at one end of the procession, as if they had been given special honour within the community. And rightfully so—the women were none other than Isawdi herself, Ariré (Brenda Kesi) and Managalas-born Sarah Ugibari.

I was welcomed into the rustic art centre building made entirely of bush materials. I rested for some time before gathering the energy to photograph the resplendently dressed community. Isawdi stayed by the art centre and when I met her, she had the biggest smile on her face. I photographed her in that moment and to this day, it is one my favourite photographs I ever took of her. There was something about her, a humble presence, but beaming with light. Her cheeks were tattooed with jö’o sor’e, the uncurling fern frond, and she wore her beautifully painted barkcloth covered in Ujawé symbolism. I entered my sleeping quarters and it had been lavishly decorated with barkcloth. There was one

Man at centre wears a givai (men‘s loincloth) painted by Isawdi, Gora village, 2010

I ©

B. King

barkcloth which immediately caught my attention and upon enquiry, it was none other than… Isawdi’s. From that very first day in Gora, even in such a large community of artists, she certainly made an impression. The dancing and singing continued late into the night. Exhausted after the long hike and festivities, I collapsed onto the bed (my transportable foam mattress). But I could barely sleep with the excitement of knowing I would meet the artists properly in the morning.The next day Isawdi arrived at the art centre for our meeting wearing full traditional dress, looking like royal nobility. The designs on her barkcloth were expressive tattooed faces of Ancestors and Ujawé tattoo designs. I learnt that Isawdi would often paint barkcloths for her entire family including for herself, her daughters, sons, daughter-in-law, son-in-law and grandchildren. Along with my translators, we spent days in the art centre discussing her paintings and designs, and recording her ancestral stories and Ömie history.

Isawdi, Gora village, January 2010

I © B. King

There were so many moments with her that left me breathless and in awe. It is impossible to describe them all, but I will mention a few that I will never forget. On one occasion, we were discussing the meaning of the designs in a new painting she had done of Amami nioge (the first barkcloth designs of the Ancestors). I pointed to an arch design she had painted at one end that I had never seen before. She simply said (in Ömie), “They are rainbows.” When you know you are seeing a design of rainbows, likely to be thousands of years old, but still—miraculously—painted in the present, such moments are profoundly moving and very emotional. Another time, there was (coincidentally) a very similar but much smaller design of arches in one of her first turtle-shell jewellery paintings (#11-101). Again, I asked her what the design was and she responded in Ömie language, “It is the first light of the morning sun shining on the horizon.” My heart burst! Isawdi would often sing the ‘Wedding Song34’ when she painted, which she loved. This song was traditionally sung before a ceremonial wedding feast to ensure the proceedings go well. She explained that when she sings this song while she paints her eyesight becomes better and it wakes her up. On one occasion, in the moment of painting she created a design especially for this song. A fine, repetitious curl design which she painted in the orriseegé (pathway) border. I believe this gives great insight into the artistic mind of Isawdi and her subtle —yet trailblazing—moments. This was Isawdi’s power, these precious moments of profound inexplicable beauty, but on repeat, over and over again (as can be seen throughout all of her art).

In Isawdi’s painting of Ureekureh’s Ujawé feasting ceremony (#10-040, p.29), there is an animal that can be seen in the bottom righthand side. It is known as a jubujé—a small to medium-sized nocturnal marsupial that lives high in the mountains. Ömie people used to hunt, trap and eat the jubujé. When I asked her why she painted that animal she replied, “That is me!”. I was confused, so I asked her again what she meant and she said with a big smile on her face, “That is me because my hand paints fast!... just like the jubujé hunts through the trees!” She made a quick brushstroke gesture with her hand. The jubujé was Isawdi’s self-chosen totem animal and became her idiosyncratic artist signature. It appears in many of her works. With the timely establishment of the art centre at Gora in 2009, Isawdi felt a great sense of urgency to record her Ömie wisdom. She knew she was old and that her mind’s treasury and all its irreplaceable insight (and I would also say—beauty) would be lost if she did not paint. Although frail, with immense conviction and abounding joy, she painted tirelessly until she passed away in 2019 at (approximately) 87 years of age, in her home village of Anahobehi surrounded by her children and grandchildren.

“This is how the first ancestors painted in the beginning… my mother showed me everything.”

Isawdi (Fate Savari)

The Nioge

One of the exceptional aspects of Isawdi as an artist is her ability to shift effortlessly between (hitherto unseen and unknown) subject matter in her paintings—from Ömie Creation and Dahorurajé clan stories; to a vast spectrum of the earliest Ancestral barkcloth painting designs; to the abstract symbolism of the Ujawé initiation rite and representations of the Ujawé ceremony; to heartfelt paintings of her husband’s country. Her repertoire was truly extraordinary and unparalleled. Witnessing her creative progression from 2009 until her passing in 2019 was fascinating and exciting, to say the least. Her mind was a bounty of ancient Ömie knowledge I had not encountered to that extent before. Combined with that wisdom, she had a boundless imagination, as well as the skills of a true master painter to execute her visions with precision. Despite her quiet modesty, she was truly a force of nature in every regard. She spoke through her paintings. They are where she poured all her wisdom. The tender voice of the love she has for her country, culture and people is the essence held within them.

Isawdi‘s barkcloths on the woven mats at Gora Art Centre, including artwork catalogue #10-040

Initiation

The Ujawé initiation rituals were an integral part of Ömie culture and society in order for boys to become men and girls to become women. Boys and girls underwent a period of seclusion, living in underground chambers known as guai, where, after some time, the boys and girls would undergo tattooing with tribal and clan specific tattoos. Mens’ entire bodies would be tattooed, while only the cheeks of women were tattooed. They would emerge ready to enter society as strong, mature adults.

In order to gain a clear understanding of what the Ömie’s Ujawé sin’e sor’e (initiation ritual body tattoo designs) looked like, one must turn to the paintings of Isawdi, Mokokari (Dapeni Jonevari), Owkeja (Elizabeth Guho) and Derami (Pauline-Rose Hago). While all artists hold a piece of the Ujawé symbolism puzzle, it is Isawdi who is the eldest among this important group and who observed aspects of the ritual experientially. There are three primary designs used in the Ujawé—vinöhu’e [umbilicus (bellybutton) design]; jö’o sor’e (uncurling fern fronds); and taigu taigu’e (zig-zag leaf pattern). These three designs combined are emblematic of a unifying symbolism among the entire Ömie people. Gifted from the Ancestors, they form the quintessential identity of Ömie.

Isawdi’s approach to introducing the Ujawé body designs into the traditional structure of Ömie women’s barkcloth painting is by composing a grid-like composition of orriseegé (pathways) [see #16-009, p.30; #16-101, p. 31; & #16-000, p.33]. She integrates the Ujawé vinöhu’e design of the bellybutton at each juncture. While this design would appear once on a male’s body around his bellybutton, in Ömie women’s barkcloth painting it is repeated many times. Within the resulting frames of the orriseegé grid, Isawdi paints the other designs (both men’s and women’s designs) of the unfurling fern and the zigzagging taigu taigu’e (pattern of a leaf). The seeming simplicity of Isawdi’s Ujawé barkcloth paintings is deceptive. The spaciousness is indicative of a sureness of hand, as only the essential elements of the designs are loaded into her painted marks with a distilled certitude. The essence of the Ujawé laid bare in all its raw, primal beauty. The purity of the designs are given ample space to resonate visually.

There was a particular, somewhat mysterious, fondness with which Isawdi painted the Ujawé designs I often contemplate. I believe she fully embraced her responsibility to preserve the men’s Ujawé designs in her painting and that her Ujawé paintings were, simultaneously, an act of duty to and love for her people and culture. Though, I have a feeling the ‘duty’ part fell away almost immediately upon instruction, and that she embraced the task unreservedly. She painted almost all of her other primary designs once or a few times only, but she would always return to the Ujawé designs as a foundation, reworking the designs with little obvious variation other than an ever-increasing passion. I think it is safe to say that Isawdi certainly fulfilled her cultural responsibilities to preserve the endangered Ujawé designs, and with such charming refinement! In 2014, Isawdi made the following comment about her Ujawé paintings:

“These tattoo designs began in the time of our Ancestors. They have been passed down to me directly from the Ancestors. If I do not paint these designs, who is going to hold this knowledge when I die? I am painting so my children and grandchildren learn, they will see and remember me and my designs. That is why I paint my tattoo designs onto the barkcloth.”35

In 2010, Isawdi painted two barkcloths depicting the Ujawé feasting ceremony (#10-040, p.29). Her late husband, Fall Savari, told her the story of how he went inside the guai—the dugout, underground site in the forest where the ritual was performed, usually hidden on the outskirts of a village. Isawdi explained that tattooing had begun on Fall but, due to the pain, he left the guai and did not complete his Ujawé initiation. However, his friend Ureekureh, otherwise known as Tabarigua36, did. The paintings show Ureekureh at Borrohojë village in the Gora valley, during the Ujawé ceremonial feast after he emerged from the underground guai. Isawdi explained it is a big and lavish celebration attended by the whole community. Through Ureekureh’s nose is a vison’e (eel-bone jewellery for initiation nasal septum piercings) and a dubié (bone-ring for nasal septum piercing). His hair has betelnut tied to its ends and he wears a headdress of feathers from birds such as the gojave (parrot) and booroohidahe (eagle). The band of chevrons across his forehead is an aresai, which was made from shells obtained through trade with coastal tribes. Around his neck is a necklace known as tamajai which is made from stones from the River Nëhö. The circular motif around his navel is vinohu’e (tattoo design of the umbilicus/bellybutton). He is surrounded by food prepared for the ceremonial feast including deji’e (yams), mage (taro) and mahubiroge (pig meat). In these paintings, Isawdi has given us the most vivid account in existence of the now extinct Ujawé ceremony.

Sor‘e (customary tattoos) on Isawdi‘s face, 2010 I © B. King

The

(Tabarigua)

c.1937 (with Dahorurajé clan design of the fern leaf, boys chopping tree branches, fast-moving nocturnal marsupial (artists’ “signature”), betelnut, men’s barkcloth loincloth, septum nose-bone jewellery, nose ring, eagle feathers, red parrot feathers, flowers for headdress, pig tusk necklace, taro, yam, pig for the feast, and fern leaves)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

51 x 56cm

10-040

View pricing

1.

initiation ceremony of Ureekureh

at Borrohöjeh,

2. Tattoo design of the bellybutton, pattern of a leaf and uncurling fern fronds

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

97 x 62cm 16-009

View pricing

Ujawé initiation rite tattoo design of the bellybutton, pattern of a leaf and uncurling fern fronds

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

105.5 x 67.5cm

16-101

3.

View pricing

4.

Ujawé initiation rite tattoo design of the bellybutton, pattern of a leaf and uncurling fern fronds

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

106.5 x 66.5cm 16-000

Ancestors

Isawdi’s knowledge of Ancestral nioge (barkcloth) designs was unsurpassed. She knew so many different styles that they could be divided into separate categories, and then, even within those categories, there would be further subcategories according to stylistic variations and subject matter. To briefly summarise just the main categories of her Ancestral nioge designs, they are: Amami nioge [cloths of the Ancestors (the first painted barkcloth designs)]; mweje (gardens); pig-skin nioge (barkcloth) of the Ancestors; shell-jewellery (traditional wealth) designs; and clan motifs. In order to gain a clear understanding of the diversity of the visual vocabulary of her Ancestral nioge, I will explore some key aspects.

When I first saw Isawdi’s Amami nioge (cloths of the Ancestors) I was astonished. She explained,

“This is how the first ancestors painted in the beginning… my mother showed me everything.” 37

Here was the missing piece of the puzzle for all Ömie barkcloth! After the mud-dyed barkcloths created by Suja and her descendants, it was these painted designs that Ömie barkcloth developed and then proliferated from. The most prominent design in all of the Amami nioge works by Isawdi are large zigzags (#17-024 , p.37). Isawdi simply (but profoundly) calls these zigzags, the “barkcloth design of our Ancestors”. Fascinatingly, but not surprisingly, this design strongly resembles dahoru’e, the zigzag design of the Ömie mountains. The Ömie mountains design is/was most often painted by elders38 of the Sahuoté clan in the villages of Duharenu, Jiapa and Tonobehi, which are all neighbouring villages of, or not far from, the Dahoruraje clan village of old Sidonejo. There appears to be a direct relationship with Isawdi’s Amami nioge (barkcloth design of our Ancestors) and dahoru’e (Ömie mountains). It is important to note that the orriseegé or ‘pathways’ appear to have already been present in Amami nioge, the very first painted Ömie designs.

Throughout all of Isawdi’s paintings, the main large designs and orriseegé (pathways) are ornately painted with an array of minute supplementary designs. These supplementary designs, apart from beautifying the painting, teach us much about Isawdi’s—as well as the Ömie Ancestors’—creative thought. Ömie Ancestors were engaged in an artistic practice that utilised a highly sophisticated and multi-faceted abstract visual vocabulary that originated from their cosmology and Ancestral stories. It also developed from their direct relationship with (and observations of) the natural world, as well as from facets of their social customs39. As Drusilla Modjeska so insightfully articulates, Suja (the first female ancestor), “… whose name translates as ‘I don’t know’… arrived into an abundant world of creatures and plants, rivers and forests she could not yet name or order… all was confusion. From a state of not knowing… she gave birth to a barkcloth art of great knowing, on which is inscribed, to this day, the histories and landscapes of Ömie, the abundant life of Huvaimo’s rivers and forests, creatures and plants.”40 Ömie women artists—as the wise daughters of their Great Mother Suja—actively and intimately continue the grand allegory of their Ancestors, ordering and understanding their world.

This painted ‘ordering’ is accomplished using the most non-linear, abstract and refined approaches— theirs is an opulent hyper-ordering.

Isawdi communicates an all-encompassing knowledge of her world by painting the microcosmic within the macrocosmic. Worlds within worlds. Abstract designs can capture the most prominent features of the landscape, such as dahoru’e (Ömie mountains), down to particular features found within the environment, such as moköjai (red parrot). In her paintings, even the tiniest, most unassuming mark can contain an entire story within it. Overtly representational designs, such as varib’e (Dahorurajé clan design of the small palm, #14-128, p.51) also reveal her deep level of engagement and intimate knowledge of her subject matter. Such articulated lyricism could only have come about through the process of truly knowing and feeling the natural environment, by absorbing all of its subtle details. We are seeing her world envisaged and made resplendent through her spirited eyes, heart and mind.

A characteristic perhaps easily overlooked in many of Isawdi’s ancestral barkcloths are the various markings applied directly41 to background spaces of the barkcloth using red or yellow pigment only. Isawdi explains that the red and yellow coloured markings often seen in her work are called jajiv’e. They are often used in customary Ömie paintings to fill the spaces, most commonly in the form of crosshatching, stripes or spots. The presence of jajiv’e in a painting is very rare and usually indicative of the work of a highly trained painter associated with a pre-contact style of Ömie barkcloth painting. Jajiv’e background markings can be seen in the work of Isawdi, Kaaru (Celestine Warina) and Hirokiki (Botha Kimmikimmi).

5.

Cloth of the Ancestors (with spots of the wood-boring grub; animal bones; boys chopping tree branches; chest feathers of the red parrot; leaves of the dubi’e plant that grows on the mountaintop; women’s woven white shell headband; and gardens)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

114 x 62cm 17-024

View pricing

6. Cloth of the Ancestors (with spots of the wood-boring grub; animal bones found while digging in the garden; boys chopping tree branches; leaves of the dubi’e plant that grows on the mountaintop; women’s woven white shell headband; pig hoof-prints and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth 88 x 51cm 18-035

View pricing

Design of the Ancestors

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

7.

91.5 x 55cm

17-035

View pricing

Gardens

We know from the late Nanati (Albert Sirimi), who was a Sahuoté clanman and the only (known) trained male Ömie barkcloth painter42, about the Ömie Ancestors’ concept of the old word ‘buriétö’e’. It was used to describe the phenomenal experience when a person looks upon a dancer wearing their barkcloth skirt or loincloth and the painted designs “change” and “come alive with beauty”43 during movement. The powerful sensation of buriétö’e occurs in the very moment the designs are animated through dance, creating a dazzling optical effect. This tells us the designs are kinetic and optimally designed for, and enhanced by, motion. They are not simply images—they have the capacity to operate and come alive. Suddenly the abstraction and repetition seen throughout Ömie barkcloth art makes sense. They are essential elements in achieving the phenomenal experience of buriétö’e Ömie art is a visual symphony of rhythmic, pulsing, radiating, warping, kaleidoscopic patterns that are being activated from the two-dimensional painted surface in a calculated interdimensional slippage in order to mesmerize the eye.

The Ancestral nioge (barkcloth) designs painted by Isawdi which most closely resemble her Amami nioge (first designs of the Ancestors), she refers to as mwe, mweje and or’e, which translates as ‘gardens’ and ‘garden pathways’. There are stylistic similarities between the ‘first designs’ and the ‘garden’ designs, as if the source of abstract geometries she is drawing upon is one and the same. The Ömie Ancestors spent much of their waking life tending to their food garden plots among the forest, as the Ömie still do today. It seems perfectly fitting then that some of the first designs the Ömie Ancestors ever painted onto barkcloth were food gardens. As a matter of survival, the Ömie are closely in tune to both planting and harvesting vegetable and fruit crops seasonally, according to nature’s cycles.

There are compositional variations within Isawdi’s gardens/garden pathway designs. They can either be woven lines forming grids (#13-029, p.46 & #18-034, p.47; #18-036, p.49), repeated squares [that upon repetition, naturally form pathways (#10-070, p.43)], or parallel diagonal lines within framed segments of orriseegé (#15-048, p.45). The commonality throughout all of these variations is the repetitious bisection of the visual field of the barkcloth, not unlike how the Ömie lay out their food gardens (in sections of forest they have cleared for that purpose). The pathways present in all iterations of the garden paintings, seem to communicate a philosophy of interconnectedness in the Ömies’ world. Furthermore, an articulated, minimal form of the mwe/mweje garden designs even appears in the first painted barkcloth designs of the Ancestors, the Amami nioge (#17-024, p.37). The spaces between the zagzags are often infilled with a crosshatch design. This crosshatch design represents the garden plots and pathways in its most succinct, and possibly earliest, form.

Essential to partially achieving the buriétö’e effect is the use of orriseegé (paths/pathways)—the vertical and horizontal bands found throughout most Ömie barkcloth paintings. Orriseegé functions to attain buriétö’e through its lines and intersections which, along with the multifarious designs,

become activated. In Isawdi’s woven grid paintings of gardens (#13-029, p.46; #18-034, p.47; #18-036, p.49), the orissegé and mwe or’e (garden pathways) are the same thing. There is no conceptual separation between the orissegé (pathways) and the ‘garden pathways’ design itself—the pathways are the design. Isawdi’s paintings of mwe, mweje and or’e (gardens/ paths through the garden) strongly indicate that orriseegé originates from the mwe/mweje/or’e garden path designs.

On one occasion Isawdi painted the Amami nioge design as rows of repeated diamond shapes, which uncannily resembled the usual zigzags. I can’t help but wonder… if the zigzags are indeed mountains… were the diamonds mountains also? … mountains mirrored within their own structure? Zigzag upon zigzag. Suddenly the leap between the repeating, continual zigzags and diamond shapes seen in Amami nioge (the first painted Ancestral barkcloth designs), as shown to us by Isawdi, and the Ancestors concept of buriétö’e, does not seem so distant. The origins of abstraction as seen within Isawdi’s Amami nioge very well may serve the greater purpose of achieving buriétö’e —conceived and designed with the intention to come alive with beauty during dance movement.

Vagur‘e (fern leaves)

I © B. King

8. Gardens

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth 135cm x 50cm 10-070

View pricing

Gardens (with spots of the wood-boring grub, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, boys chopping tree branches, small white plants that grow on mountaintops, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, pig hoof-prints, bees, chest feathers of the red parrot, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill, markings of the stones at Uborida)

9.

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

149 x 74cm 15-048

View pricing

Gardens (with yams, red pandanus, white yams, beaks of the parrot, pig hoofprints, bees, boys chopping tree branches, beaks of Blyth’s Hornbill, spots of the wood-boring grub and old animal bones found while digging in the garden)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

104 x 73cm

13-029

View pricing

10.

Gardens (with spots of the wood-boring grub, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, boys chopping tree branches, small white plants that grow on mountaintops, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, pig hoof-prints, bees, chest feathers of the red parrot and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

99.5 x 72cm

18-034

View pricing

11.

Gardens (with spots of the wood-boring grub; animal bones found while digging in the garden; boys chopping tree branches; leaves of the dubi’e plant that grows on the mountaintop; women’s woven white shell headband; pig hoof-prints and bees)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

75 x 56cm

18-036

View pricing

12.

Belonging

Ömie women would grow up learning their clan and/or sub-clan insignia totem which was painted onto barkcloth. These motifs are always based on plants or particular aspects of plants. When a woman would marry into another clan, she would become a part of his clan. Her mother-in-law, and in some cases her husband, would teach her the clan insignia of his clan by way of painting on barkcloth. Knowing what this clan insignia may have looked like in the early-mid twentieth-century has been shown to us by a single artist only—Isawdi. She painted this design on a few barkcloths but purely as a subject in itself in her painting #14-128 (p.51). She painted the clan insignia of her Dahoruarjé birth clan—varib’e, representing a small palm. If Isawdi was wearing a nioge (barkcloth skirt) with the varib’e clan insignia, members of neighbouring villages and clans would easily be able to identify her as belonging to the Dahoruajé clan.

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

86 x 52cm

14-128

View pricing

13.

Dahorurajé clan design of the small palm (with small black palm, leaves of the warubé plant, pig hoofprints and plant stems)

Moonbeams

Isawdi’s works on paper—which are discussed in more detail in the following chapter—provided early clues that, among her wealth of knowledge of Ömie barkcloth designs, there were celestialthemed designs and stories (see #12-201, p.81; and #12-233, p.98). It was not until she produced only two barkcloths of such designs (including #17-032, p.53) in 2016 and 2017, that we could finally see this composition in all its original beauty. The painting is of ‘Avinö’e ohu’o jij’e’, the moon and stars of the night sky. Part of the brilliance of this striking piece are the bristles coming off the crescent motifs—these bristles are emanating moonlight. Isawdi’s sister, Guo’ahörumö from old Sidonejo village, painted this design. Guo’ahörumö had a different father to Isawdi, named Bumagöse, and this design comes from his side. The designs are associated with the Dahorurajé clan story of ‘The Old Woman Who Hung the Sun and Moon from the Tree’. The timeless, universal celestial themes in Isawdi’s moon and stars painting, combined with its earthly energy, makes this painting highly significant in her œuvre.

14.

Moon and stars

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

76.5 x 57cm

17-032

View pricing

Pig Skin, Mud and Hornbill Beaks

The art of Isawdi consistently asks us to reassess what we think we may know about Ömie barkcloth. Her work #12-080 (p.57)—is the first and only example of the Ancestors’ mahu sin’e nioge, which translates as ‘pig-skin barkcloth’ or ‘barkcloth with skin of the pig’. Before Isawdi created this work there had been no mention of such types of barkcloth by any of the senior artists. This was ancient. Isawdi has used barkcloth in place of the dried pig skin used by the Ancestors. Just as the Ancestors would sew the pig skin, she has sewn the stand-in ‘pig-skin’ barkcloth strips/bands onto the barkcloth. The beautiful designs painted onto the ‘pig skin’ strips/bands are also known as mahu sin’e (skin of the pig). Isawdi explains,

“The whole thing is mahu sin’e [skin of the pig]. In the time of our Ancestors, my grandmother and our Ancestors before her, they created barkcloths using the skin of the pig. There was a feast so the people killed a pig. They used the pig skin, cut it and sewed it onto the sihoti’e nioge [the mud-painted barkcloth].”44

Isawdi also explained that her grandmother would use mud to paint exactly as this piece has been painted. Before Isawdi created this work, we knew from the barkcloth art of Ömie artist, Ariré (Brenda Kesi), that the Ancestors would use mud to dye barkcloth, that they would then sew into barkcloth known as sihoti’e taliobame’e nioge (mud-dyed, cut and sewn barkcloth). Isawdi’s pig-skin barkcloth is the only known example of mud being used to paint with.

There is also a subtle detail which can be seen at the edges of the stand-in ‘pig skin’ barkcloth bands. They have been cut with the traditional zigzag design known as buborianö’e, representing the beak of the Papuan Hornbill. Although not painted, this zigzag cutting is a design in itself. The Papuan Hornbill beak design is also found throughout all painted barkcloth art of the Ömie as an identical, fine zigzag design. Canadian anthropologist, Marta A. Rohatynskjy, tells of how emergence from the underground Ujawé initiation site that the Ömie refer to as a guai, “was accomplished by the youngest boy, sitting on the shoulders of the eldest, breaking out of the top of the structure using a hornbill beak secured to the top of his head.”45 This aspect of the Ujawé correlates precisely with one part of the Creation story of the male Ancestor who emerged from the underground cave known as Uwai’i at Vavago. The male Ancestor, Hartivevah, wore the beak of the Papuan Hornbill on his forehead. He saw light shining through a small hole and climbed a jungle vine to reach the hole. Using the Hornbill beak on his forehead adornment, he pecked repeatedly to enlarge the hole. There is much more to the story, but for our purposes here, the hornbill beak design originates from this story46. In every regard, the entirely unique pig-skin work #12-080 (p.57) by Isawdi, unearths aspects in the complex early history of Ömie barkcloth art that were previously absent.

15.

Ancestor’s pig skin barkcloth (skin of the pig, mud paint, beak of the Papuan Hornbill, animal bones found while digging in the garden, beak of the parrot, women’s woven white shell headband adornment, boys chopping tree branches, leaves of the dubi’e tree and spots of the wood-boring grub)

Natural Pigments including Sihoti’e (Mud) on Barkcloth 108 x 87cm

Lokirro’s Shells

The Ömie Ancestors, including Isawdi’s father Lokirro, followed old trade routes through the mountains to reach the distant coastal tribes of Collingwood Bay to trade for, and search on the beach for, seashells (hartu’e, marai baj’e and nenyai) and turtle shells (matabuté/worro worrë). These shells must have been viewed as mystifying and exotic treasures, and were valued for their rarity. There were extreme challenges and risks setting out from the Ömie mountains on the perilous journey to trade for such shells, with the real likelihood of attack by neighbouring enemies on the path. Obtaining such shells brought with it victory and prestige. The Ömie would fashion the turtle shell and seashells into exquisite, fine jewellery necklaces and forehead adornments. The only similar, locally available, highly-prized natural objects were pig tusks and stones (tamajai) which would also be made into elaborate jewellery. Such jewellery was often decorated with brightly coloured seeds and opalescent beetle wings. The pig tusk, turtle shell and seashell necklaces became the primary traditional currency of the Ömie (other objects of trade include betelnut, live pigs and barkcloth). The shell necklace jewellery would be displayed proudly during dancing ceremonies by biting a clasp behind the pendant. Such displays were bound to both male and female’s social rank and status.

Isawdi’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 and 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 no wonder then that the Ömies’ valuable turtle shell and seashell jewellery developed into an array of beautiful designs on Ömie women’s painted barkcloth. What better way to impress by announcing your prosperity and standing with corresponding turtle shell and seashell jewellery designs on your skirt? Through her barkcloths (#11-101, p.61; and #14131, p.63), Isawdi reveals the beauty and mystery of the shell jewellery designs. These are all the more resonant since the shell trade routes to the coast are no longer walked by the Ömie. This cultural tradition stopped sometime after first contact with Australian colonial administrators (after 1906), with the establishment of Popondetta Agricultural Station on the lowland plains, and with the gradual introduction of money.

Ömie wearing shell and pig tusk jewellery, Gora art centre, January 2010

I © B. King

16.

Ancestor’s turtle shell pendant design barkcloth [turtle shell pendant and fragments of turtle shell (with human hand, daybreak (first light of the sun on the horizon), tree roots in the garden, leaves of the dubi’e tree, gardens, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill, animal bones found while digging in the garden, spots of the woodboring grub and wallaby’s tailbone)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

140 x 59cm 11-101

View pricing

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

95.5

14-131

View pricing

17.

Ancestor’s turtle shell pendant barkcloth design and spots of the wood-boring grub

x 73cm

Design of the Ancestors

18.

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

94 x 66cm 17-033

View pricing

From 2010-2011 Isawdi produced a suite of immeasurably important paintings of the Ömie Creation story of Huvaimo and surrounding lands. These paintings were predominantly composed of ancestral iconography, with some expressive figurative, representational elements. At the time these were painted, Isawdi was the last Ömie person still living who knew the ancestral barkcloth iconography associated with the Creation story.

Isawdi’s painting #12-076 (p.69) depicts the story of how Mina, the first man, stole the fire from Vetara, the old woman bilum-weaver of Huvaimo. The first Ancestors Mina and Suja can be seen in the work (on the left-hand side at centre), surrounded by all of the “sis’e” (bad) bush food that Vetara distributed to them from her woven bilum string-bag as punishment for stealing her fire. Mina and Suja, as well as all generations of Ömie born afterwards, have been affected by Mina’s reckless action of stealing Vetara’s fire. This story, captured so dynamically in Isawdi’s painting, is a reminder to the Ömie of the omnipotent power of their Ancestors. This dynamic painting stands as one of the most important works ever produced by any Ömie artist due to its sacred content of a vital part of the Creation story, as well as by its exceptionally assured and detailed artistic rendering.

The politics around Isawdi’s Creation paintings is fascinating and for posterity, there must be record. I must first acknowledge that conflict around ownership of the Ömie Creation story is only a very recent issue which has arisen due to the effects of Christian missionary activity upon the Ömie. By 2010, missionaries had impacted Ömie culture to the extent that there were only two individuals still remaining who knew the sacred Ömie Creation story conclusively—Isawdi was one. This was the origin story that was at one time shared among all Ömie people, and it was almost lost.

Isawdi’s Creation story paintings caused a dispute when the traditional landowners of her birth country discovered she had painted them and they demanded that she stop. This demand was outside of jagor’e (traditional Ömie law) and was more akin to an unreasonable assertion of power. Although Isawdi was born into that country, when she married outside of her clan (as is very common for women), she lost her birth clan title. I was later informed that the landowners feared that Isawdi or her sons would lay claim to their clan lands because she knew how to paint that country. Among the Ömie (if not, among every cultural group in Papua New Guinea), there are often land ownership disputes which can turn violent. It is serious business and it is unending—a dispute can continue for generations unresolved. I can say with the utmost certainty that Isawdi had absolutely no interest in claiming the land. She had reached a very old age, and she was perfectly content simply painting the stories of her birth country where she had grown up, knew intimately and remembered fondly. She had rightfully learnt the Ömie Creation story and associated iconography from her mother, Majaho, and from her father, Lokirro. She was also painting the Creation story for the benefit of all Ömie people.

When Isawdi was instructed to stop painting the Creation story, I knew I was witnessing its extinction, and I was deeply saddened. It was not my place to become involved in a complicated, age-old clan dispute so there was nothing I could do to resolve it. It is a tragedy that, with all the damage already done to Ömie culture by the imposed religion of Christianity, that one of the very last remaining instances of reliable, authentic transmission of the Creation story was silenced by the Ömie themselves. The existence of these paintings is miraculous. They are testament to Isawdi’s passion to share the origin stories of her people. We will not see anything like this again from the Ömie, as the depth of artistic and cultural knowledge needed to produce such works no longer exists since Isawdi’s passing.

We learn so much about Isawdi through these most unfortunate politics. Isawdi was not troubled in the slightest by the landowners’ demand on her to stop painting the country where she had grown up. However, under pressure, she did stop and instantaneously shifted her primary focus to painting her husband’s land where she had spent most of her life, as well as its’ stories. Despite her artistic oppression, she never spoke of the conflict again, not once. She went on to produce a phenomenal body of work unlike anything seen before, navigating new terrain with sheer grace like a true artist, which was truly something to behold! She was unstoppable. Her sacred wisdom of Ömie Creation is forever preserved in the paintings.

Savodobehi village

I © B. King

Uborida

Isawdi lived most of her life in Gora with her husband, Fall Savari, raising their seven children together. When their children grew up, she also helped in raising her grandchildren. Fall Savari belonged to the Evorajé clan, and when Isawdi married him she joined his clan. Both Fall and her mother-in-law taught Isawdi the barkcloth designs of the Evorajé clan, along with the Ancestral stories of their customary land surrounding Uborida, to the south of Anahobehi village.

Flowing down from the Hydrographer’s Range on the Managalas Plateau, Uborida runs through the large valley of Gora. Many Ancestral stories and historical events of different clans cross over at Uborida, and Isawdi shared many of the same stories as the Misajé and Nyonirajé clans. Her stories extend down to Jov’e Iron’e, a river near Tahari land where she would clean and prepare gardens when she first married. Much of her life was spent gardening around Uborida with Fall, and she came to know that country and its stories intimately. There are many sacred sites in this land such as the waterfall, Juoho, and the waterhole, Maruro. Isawdi explained how some of the fondest memories of her life are of her time spent with her beloved husband there. The way Isawdi painted the country of Uborida was always with great affection and sentimentality (#14-129, p.73; and #15-047, p.75). While on the surface they are paintings of Uborida and its stories, what is unseen— yet contained within them—is the romance she shared with her late husband and the expression of her happiness from having spent her life with him.

River in Ömie territory I © B. King

Misa’eje clan story of the brother and sister discovering the Kunnoo’ino tree (with the brother’s garden, tattoo designs on the brother’s body, orchid leaves, fig tree and leaves of the fig tree)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth 100 x 63.5cm 14-129

View pricing

20.

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth

94 x 78cm 15-047

View pricing

21.

Bend in the flooding Jordan River (Uborida) [with spots of the wood-boring grub, boys chopping tree branches, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, white plants growing on mountaintops, and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill]

Torrential Creativity: The Works on Paper

In 2012 at Gora Art Centre, Isawdi presented a schoolbook she had obtained from her granddaughter. It was filled from front to back with drawings of ancestral Ömie and Dahorurajé clan stories (including many aspects of the Creation story), histories, culture and 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. One drawing was even used to wrap a rare and highly-prized headdress ornament of a King bird-of-paradise (Cicinnurus regius). She created the book and drawings because she felt a great urgency to record her profound knowledge, before she passed away. She used whatever materials she could find on hand.

After presenting this first book, she requested another book, more paper and drawing materials so she could still create art during the seasons that she didn’t have any barkcloth to paint on. Younger women would beat barkcloth especially for Isawdi to paint on but the supply of this preferred medium was inconsistent. In 2014, Isawdi filled yet another book with a collection of drawings and paintings, as well as some larger loose works on paper. She drew and painted many designs she had not created before. These special works on paper are the first of their kind by an Ömie artist, and capture a spectrum of Isawdi’s profound wisdom, as well as her creative imagination and humour. Apart from her authentic genius, they are filled with everything about her culture that was closest to her heart.

Isawdi with her second drawing book, Gora Art Centre, 2014

I © B. King

Details

Details

Details

Details

42. Details

Details

Details

Details

67. Details

Details

Details

Details

105. Details

Details

Details

Vessel of Boundless Earth Wisdom

Isawdi’s achievement and contribution to Ömie art and culture is astonishing. Her paintings are portals to an unknown time and place that will never repeat itself. She knew her world entirely, and to its farthest limits. From Creation; to her sacred birth country of Huvaimo; to Ancestral stories; rainforest plants and animals; gardens; initiation; customs; the elemental; the celestial; the phenomenological; Uborida and beyond— Isawdi was a vessel of boundless earth wisdom. Hers are not disparate images of a place, they are the very extension of that place.

There is one final thing I am compelled to say about the art of Isawdi. There is an inherent quality to the way that she painted, a certain essence to all of her mark-making. Admittedly, this essence is difficult to convey but I will try. I believe all of her painted marks are imbued with a very tender form of devotional love she had for her culture and people—a gentility. As much as her designs may differ from painting to painting, this gentle quality is there among all of them and unifies her expansive body of work. If Isawdi taught me anything about seeing her art, or asks anything of us as viewers, it is that we must not simply look at her art with our eyes— we must try to see her art by looking through the eyes of our heart.

Isawdi during the construction of her new house, Gora village, 2011

ISAWDI (Fate Savari)

Birth Date circa 1933 - 2019

Place of Birth Sidonejo village, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea

Language Ömie

Skin/Clan Dahorurajé (formerly Evorajé)

Isawdi (Fate Savari) has been painting for Ömie Artists since the Gora village art centre was established by the community in late 2008, officially opening in 2009. Isawdi is undisputedly the most knowledgeable artist and (humble) female cultural leader in all of Ömie territory as she has been painting her entire life, since she was a very young girl.

Her mother was Majaho and her father was the legendary Lokirro, both Dahorurajé clanspeople from Sidonejo village. The old village of Sidonejo was destroyed during the 1951 eruption of Huvaimo (Mount Lamington) and the village was relocated to present day Savodobehi. Both Sidonejo and Savodobehi are highly significant villages as they are nestled high in the mountains close to the sacred mountains frequently referred to in the Ömie creation story—Huvaimo (Mount Lamington), where the world began; and Mount Obo, home of the first people, Mina and Suja.

Isawdi learnt a wealth of soru’e (tattoo designs) from her mother. In splendid detail, Isawdi paints her knowledge of—the sacred Ömie creation story; ancestral stories; stories linked to sacred sites and sites of significance; ancient nioge (barkcloth) designs; microcosmic and phenomenological details and observations of the tropical landscape; and Ömie histories. Through the complexity, sophistication and extraordinary diversity of her designs, Isawdi’s paintings take us to the source - to the very heart of the world of Ömie. With each new painting Isawdi reveals new ancestral knowledge and prides herself on executing that knowledge in the most visually compelling way possible. She is a true artist of the highest order.

She is the widow of Evorajé clanman Fall Savari and moved from her village of Savodobehi to his village in the Gora valley when they married. Fall taught Isawdi the ancestral stories of his land in the Gora valley. Isawdi has taught many of her designs to her daughter, Hilda Mekio, as well as her daughter-in-law, Linda-Grace Savari. Isawdi is the proud mother of seven children.

Isawdi with her nioge , Gora Art Centre, 2014 I © B. King

Collections

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, USA.

British Museum, London, UK.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK.

Michelle Picker Collection, Melbourne, Australia.

Private Collections.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020 Where Clouds Are Spirit Parrots: Art of the Ömie Women - Delmar Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2019 Oceanic Art Society Tribal Art Fair - National Art School, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Niugini: Land of the Unexpected I - ArtKelch, Freiburg, Germany.

2018 Oceanic Art Society Tribal Art Fair - National Art School, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Ömie Barklcloth Art – Papua New Guinea - Japingka Aboriginal Art, Perth, WA, Australia.

Art of the Ömie, JGM Gallery, London, England

2017 Ömie Barkcloth Art of Papua New Guinea - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Nom’e Javavamu Darugé I’jové (We Dance Our Designs To Life) - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

PNG, It’s Dynamite - Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Ömie Women Artists - Tunbridge Gallery, Perth, WA, Australia.

Stories Are Forever - presented by Vivien Anderson Gallery at Merricks House Gallery, Mornington Peninsula, VIC, Australia.

2016 Moonlight, Mountains and Pig Tusks: Painted Wisdom of the Ömie Chiefs - Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Mionomehi Oriseegé (Ancestral Paths) - Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA, Australia.

2015 Hijominöe Modéjadé (Guided by Ancestors): Ömie Artists 10th Anniversary Exhibition - Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Mein Freund Der Baum (My Friend, The Tree) - ArtKelch, Schorndorf, Germany.

Duvahe Nioge: Barkcloths by the Senior Ömie Artists of Papua New Guinea - Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Art Karlsruhe 2015 (Ömie Artists presented by ArtKelch), Karslruhe, Germany.

2015 Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Painting, Room 91 - British Museum, London, UK. Under the Volcano: Art of Ömie from Papua New Guinea - Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich, Germany.

2014 Das soll Kunst sein Vol. 12 (Ömie Artists presented by ArtKelch) - Kunstverein, Freiburg, Germany.

2014 Luminous Mountain - Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Ömie Artists: Contemporary Tapa Art from Papua New Guinea - ArtKelch, Freiburg & Stuttgart, Germany.

New Paintings by Ömie Chiefs and Senior Artists - Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

2013 Made in Oceania: Tapa – Art and Social Landscapes - Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne, Germany.

Volcanic Visions: Barkcloth Art of the Ömie - Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York, USA.

Suja’s Daughters - Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.

Of Spirit and Splendour: Barkcloth Art of the Ömie - ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2012 Art of the Ömie: Barkcloth Paintings from Papua New Guinea - Harvey Art Projects, Sun Valley ID, USA.

Second Skins: Painted Barkcloth from New Guinea and Central Africa - Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Barkcloth Paintings by Ömie Chiefs and Elders - William Mora Galleries, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

2011 No si hijomiono’o jabesi sor’e jajivo (We are painting the designs of our Ancestors)ReDot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore.

2010 Rweromo garé niogehu mamabahe ajivé (Come and see the beauty and brightness of our barkcloths) - Chapman Gallery, Canberra, ACT, Australia.

Works on Barkcloth - Price List

1. The initiation ceremony of Ureekureh (Tabarigua) at Borrohöjeh, c.1937 (ohu’o gori hane, Ije bi’weje, jubuje, givai, bison’e, dubié, booroohidahe, gojav’e, sibirihané, mahudan’e, margé, deje, mahe ohu’o nyoni han’e - with Dahorurajé clan design of the fern leaf, boys chopping tree branches, fast-moving nocturnal marsupial (artists’ “signature”), betelnut, men’s barkcloth loincloth, septum nose-bone jewellery, nose ring, eagle feathers, red parrot feathers, flowers for headdress, pig tusk necklace, taro, yam, pig for the feast, and fern leaves)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 51 x 56cm I 10-040

2. Vinöhu’e, taigu taigu’e ohu’o jö’o sor’e - Tattoo design of the bellybutton, pattern of a leaf and uncurling fern fronds

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 97 x 62cm I 16-009

3. Vinöhu’e, taigu taigu’e ohu’o jö’o sor’e - Ujawé initiation rite tattoo design of the bellybutton, pattern of a leaf and uncurling fern fronds

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 105.5 x 67.5cm I 16-101

4. Vinöhu’e, taigu taigu’e ohu’o jö’o sor’e - Ujawé initiation rite tattoo design of the bellybutton, pattern of a leaf and uncurling fern fronds

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 106.5 x 66.5cm I 16-000

5. Amami nioge (sabu deje, mi’ija’ahe, ije bi’weje, moköjö bineb’e, dubidubi’e, nenyai, ohu’o mwe) - Cloth of the Ancestors (with spots of the wood-boring grub; animal bones; boys chopping tree branches; chest feathers of the red parrot; leaves of the dubi’e plant that grows on the mountaintop; women’s woven white shell headband; and gardens)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 114 x 62cm I 17-024

6. Amami nioge (sabu deje, mi’ija’ahe, ije bi’weje, dubidubi’e, nenyai, mahuva’oje ohu’o buboriano’e) - Cloth of the Ancestors (with spots of the wood-boring grub; animal bones found while digging in the garden; boys chopping tree branches; leaves of the dubi’e plant that grows on the mountaintop; women’s woven white shell headband; pig hoof-prints and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 88 x 51cm I 18-035

7. Amami sor’e - Design of the Ancestors

POA View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 91.5 x 55cm I 17-035 POA

View artwork

8. Mwe (ije bi’weje; garor’e ohu’o gori han’e; webe ija ahe; vahuhu ija ahe; uga’areteh ohu’o tabarisé) - Gardens

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 135cm x 50cm I 10-070

9. Mweje (Sabu deje, nenyai, ije biweje, ijo bunë, dubidubi’e, mi’ija’ahe, moköjö bineb’e, mahuva’oje, ujë, buborianö’e, jä’ino carticarti) - Gardens (with spots of the wood-boring grub, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, boys chopping tree branches, small white plants that grow on mountaintops, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, pig hoof-prints, bees, chest feathers of the red parrot, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill, markings of the stones at Uborida)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 149 x 74cm I 15-048

10. Mweje (deje, suhé, ijo bunë, mokojö anö’e, mahuva’oje, ujë, ije bi’weje, buborianö’e, sabu deje ohu’o mi’ija’ahe) - Gardens (with yams, red pandanus, white yams, beaks of the parrot, pig hoofprints, bees, boys chopping tree branches, beaks of Blyth’s Hornbill, spots of the wood-boring grub and old animal bones found while digging in the garden)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 104 x 73cm I 13-029

11. Mweje (Sabu deje, nenyai, ije biweje, dubidubi’e, mi’ija’ahe, moköjö bineb’e, mahuva’oje, ujë, ohu’o buborianö’e) - Gardens (with spots of the wood-boring grub, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, boys chopping tree branches, small white plants that grow on mountaintops, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, pig hoof-prints, bees, chest feathers of the red parrot and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 99.5 x 72cm I 18-034

12. Mweje (sabu deje, mi’ija’ahe, ije bi’weje, dubidubi’e, nenyai, mahuva’oje ohu’o ujë) - Gardens (with spots of the wood-boring grub; animal bones found while digging in the garden; boys chopping tree branches; leaves of the dubi’e plant that grows on the mountaintop; women’s woven white shell headband; pig hoof-prints and bees)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 75 x 56cm I 18-036

13. Dahorurajé clan design of varib’e (seve, warubö han’e, mahuva’oje ohu’o ije behe - with small black palm, leaves of the warubé plant, pig hoofprints and plant stems)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 86 x 52cm I 14-128

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

14. Avinö’e ohu’o jij’e - Moon and stars

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 76.5 x 57cm I 17-032

15. Mahu sin’e (mahu sinö’e, buborianö’e, buboriano’e, mi’ija’ahe, mokojai, nenyai, ije bi’weje, dubi dubi’e ohu’o sabu deje) - Ancestor’s pig skin barkcloth (skin of the pig, mud paint, beak of the Papuan Hornbill, animal bones found while digging in the garden, beak of the parrot, women’s woven white shell headband adornment, boys chopping tree branches, leaves of the dubi’e tree and spots of the wood-boring grub)

Natural Pigments including Sihoti’e (Mud) on Nioge (Woman’s Barkcloth Skirt) I 108 x 87cm I 12-080

16. Worro worrë nioge / Matabuté [Worro worrë ohu’o in’e in’e (with ov’e, arére ajivé, ijo bunobun’e, dubi han’e, mwe, buboriano’e, sabu deje, mi’ija’ahe ohu’o ije bi’weje)] - Ancestor’s turtle shell pendant design barkcloth [turtle shell pendant and fragments of turtle shell (with human hand, daybreak (first light of the sun on the horizon), tree roots in the garden, leaves of the dubi’e tree, gardens, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill, animal bones found while digging in the garden, spots of the wood-boring grub and wallaby’s tailbone)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 140 x 59cm I 11-101

17. Worro worrë nioge ohu’o sabu deje - Ancestor’s turtle shell pendant barkcloth design and spots of the wood-boring grub 2014

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 95.5 x 73cm I 14-131

18. Amami sor’e - Design of the Ancestors

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 94 x 66cm I 17-033

19. The story of the old woman bilum-weaver, Insa of Huvaimo, and the stolen fire

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 114 x 77cm I 12-076

20. Misa’eje clan story of the brother and sister discovering the Kunnoo’ino tree (Mwe, jaji’e sor’e, dubidubi hané, marové ohu’o marové hané - with the brother’s garden, tattoo designs on the brother’s body, orchid leaves, fig tree and leaves of the fig tree)

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 100 x 63.5cm I 14-129

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

21. Uborida jowo tahgwe ohu’o isairov’e, horé hitahi’e [sabu deje, ije biweje, mi’ija’ahe, dubidubi’e han’e, ohu’o buborianö’e] - Bend in the flooding Jordan River (Uborida) [with spots of the wood-boring grub, boys chopping tree branches, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, white plants growing on mountaintops, and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill]

Natural Pigments on Barkcloth I 94 x 78cm I 15-047

All prices exclude GST, Framing and Shipping.

Works on Paper - Price List

22. Girls with jo’o sor’e (facial tattoos) and wéhivive’e (barkcloth hair-twists)

23.

(seed necklace), bisijai (fighting club) and jaig’e (armlets)

24. Soru’e (vinohu’e, jo’e sor’e ohu’o taigu taigu’e) - Ujawé initiation body tattoos

25.

- Gardens

26. Nyoni han’e ohu’o mahuva’oje - Dahorurajé clan emblem of the fern leaf and pig hoof-prints

27. Nyoni han’e - Dahorurajé clan emblem of the fern leaf

28. Gori han’e ohu’o ije

biwej’e - Clan emblem of the fern, new shoots of the fern and boys chopping tree branches

- Turtle shell pendants

ohu’o mi’e ija ahe - Turtle shell pendants and animal bones

Hartu’e - Pendant made from turtle shell

33. Jov’e Iron’e - River Iron’e

Paper I 17 x 22.5cm I 12-211

34. 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

Paper I 17 x 22.5cm I 12-202

35. 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

Paper I 22.5 x 17cm I 12-203

36. Vene vitwé, hitai hu’e ohu’o ije biweje - Fireplace, stones for cooking and boys chopping tree branches

x 17cm I 12-209

37. Jov’e Idö ohu’o hijomiono’e sor’é - River Idö and old design of the bamboo on the fire with fish and eel cooking inside

Paper I 17 x 22.5cm I 12-216

38. Une ohu’o esoe - Coconut shell drinking vessel and woven string-bag

22.5 x 17cm I 12-212

39. Mahudan’e, mahu an’e ohu’o nyoni han’e - Pig tusks, pig teeth and Dahorurajé clan emblem of the fern leaf

Paper I 22.5 x 17cm I 12-204

40a & 40b. Untitled & Jubuje ohu’o jarihan’e

Paper I 22.5 x 17cm I 12-208 (double-sided work)

Untitled (Ancestor)

Paper I 15.8 x 15.3cm I 12-231

Paper I 15 x 16.2cm I 12-230

43. Ancestors with Ujawé initiation sor’e (tattoos)

clan story of the ancestor’s footprint in the stone at Uborida (Jordan River in the Gora valley)

&50b. Mahe sor’e - Designs associated with the cutting of the pig for ceremonial feasts & Nuni’e - Design of the eye (and unidentified design)

- Pendant made from turtle shell

53. Nyoni han’e, varib’e, ije biweje ohu’o jubuje - Leaves of the fern, Dahorurajé clan emblem, boys chopping tree branches and nocturnal marsupial (Fate Savari’s ‘signature’)

Ink on Schoolbook Paper I 21 x 29.5cm I 12-223

54. Nyoni han’e, varib’e, ije biweje ohu’o jubuje - Dahorurajé clan emblems of the leaves of the fern, boys chopping tree branches, nocturnal marsupial

Ink and Pencil on Card I 29.5 x 21cm I 12-234

55. Avin’e ajive, varib’e, ije biweje ohu’o jubuje - All the different bright lights shining around the Moon, Dahorurajé clan emblem, boys chopping tree branches and nocturnal marsupial (Fate Savari’s ‘signature’)

Ink and Pencil on Card I 21 x 29.5cm I 12-233

56. Mweje, ije biweje, varib’e ohu’o jubuje - Gardens, boys chopping tree branches, Dahorurajé clan emblem, boys chopping tree branches and nocturnal marsupial (Fate Savari’s ‘signature’)

Ink and Pencil on Card I 21 x 29.5cm I 12-235

57. Dahore Huvaimo, Dahore Ömie, Dahore Guwago, Dahore Marerio, Dahore A’oji ohuo ije biweje, mokojo hwé ahe - Mount Lamington (Huvaimo), Mount Ömie, Mount Guwago, Mount Marerio and Mount A’oji, boys chopping tree branches and markings of the parrot’s feathers

Pencil and Ink on Paper (and Board) I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-200

58. Vetara’s kutito bojoe (Woman weaver of Huvaimo’s bilum string bag)

Pencil and Ink on Paper (and Board) I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-248

59. Nuni’e - Design of the eye

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-226

60. Vinohu’e (tattoo of the bellybutton), sor’e (Ujawé initiation tattoos) and the wedding song, “Wowomo ririho ano eggo niar’e sabero nuniro va’eve”

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-207

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

61. Sor’e - Ujawé initiation rite tattoo designs Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-225

62. Sor’e - Ujawé initiation rite tattoo designs Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-227

63a &63b. Amami nioge - The very first barkcloth design of the Ancestors & Ije biwej’e - Boys chopping tree branches

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-212 (double-sided work)

64. Amami nioge - The very first barkcloth design of the Ancestors

and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-222

65. Amami nioge - The very first barkcloth design of the Ancestors

66. Obohuhataigu’e - Design of the tree bark pattern

and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-208

67. Amami nioge - The very first barkcloth design of the Ancestors

and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-242

68. Mweje, mi’ija’ahe, nenyai, mokojo hwe ahe ohu’o ije bi’weje - Gardens, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, markings of the parrot’s feathers and boys chopping tree branches Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-205

69. Dahor’e - Mountains of my brother’s land

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-241

70. Mweje - Gardens

and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-240

71. Buboriano’e - Beaks of the Papuan Hornbill

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-232 POA

72. Maraj’e

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-220

73. Mweje - Gardens

View artwork

View artwork

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-218 POA

74. Mweje - Gardens

View artwork

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-233 POA

75. Mweje, sabu ahe, ije biweje ohu’o mokojo hwe ahe - Gardens, spots of the wood-boring grub, boys chopping tree branches and markings of the parrot’s feathers

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-202

76. Mweje, mi’ija’ahe, nenyai, mokojo hwe ahe ohu’o ije bi’weje - Gardens, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, markings of the parrot’s feathers and boys chopping tree branches

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-206

77. Deje borom’e, dubidubi han’e, mi’ija’ahe, nenyai, mokojo hwe ahe ohu’o ije bi’weje - Big yams, orchid leaves, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, markings of the parrot’s feathers and boys chopping tree branches

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-203

78. Yams of Godibehi, Savodobehi, Tonobehi, Gora, Gorabuna, Enjoro, Jiapa, Duharenu, Asapa, and ije biwej’e (Boys chopping tree branches)

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-201

79. Mag’e, mweje, nenyai, mokojo hwe ahe ohu’o sabu ahe - Taro in the garden, women’s white seashell forehead adornment, markings of the parrot’s feathers and boys chopping tree branches

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-204

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

80.

- Dahorurajé clan design of the small palm

- Dahoruraje clan emblem of the fern

82. The white bird-of paradise sitting in the Mango tree at Sidonejo village (with mango fruits)

83. Old legend story of Buruhé (Eagle)

85. Hin’e baje - Story of the first mustard

Hin’e baje - Story of the first mustard

Ajivé aviné - All the different bright lights shining around the Moon

- Ceremonial shell necklace

- Ancestor’s turtle shell pendant

84. Nyoni han’e - Nyonirajé clan emblem of the fern leaf

Nyoni han’e - Nyonirajé clan emblem of the fern leaf

91. Matabuté ohu’o in’e in’e - Ancestor’s turtle shell pendant and fragments of turtle shell

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-231

92. Marai baje - Ancestors’ coastal shell jewellery (traditional Ömie wealth)

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-238

93. My brother Newnan Gadai’s land - Mount Urobo (Dahore Urobo) and its headwaters

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-210

94. Webe nun’e - Eyes of the cuscus coming out from the socket as it cooks on the fire

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-247

95a & 95b. Ömie amovu, hin’e, mahudan’e, mahu an’e - Story of the first mustard (with pig’s tusks and teeth) & Fire story of River Ido (Part I)

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-215 (double-sided work)

96. Soro guai ohu’o vene vitwé - Ground cooking pit with firewood (for ceremonial wedding feast)

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-214

97. Fire story of River Ido (Part II)

View artwork

View artwork

POA

View artwork

AUD 750 View artwork

View artwork

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-217 POA

98. Juworé - Insects that walk on the surface of the water

View artwork

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-224 POA

99. Wovoso Nusis’e, hirokiki, amuridé ohu’o burejé - Waterfall at River Nusis’e (on my brother’s ancestral land), with murky, yellow water and river reeds

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-245

View artwork

POA

View artwork

100. Dahor’e Monam’e, Dahore Guavo, Gora, Jije Gwodo, Jije Maiha ohu’o baderivamo - Mount Monam’e, Mount Guavo, Gora valley, Gwodo star, Maiha star and lightning

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-230

101. Footprints of the Tohor’e (white man) who came to Ömie territory during the time of my father, Lokirro and Nyani and Vuwiji (the Orokaivan men) with boroté (black palm fighting club)

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 30.5 x 22cm I 14-243

102. Uehero (Wisdom) - Footprints of Brennan King as he treks from village to village checking nioge (barkcloth) and ije biweje (boys chopping tree branches)

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-246

103. Self-portrait sitting down, tired and resting after telling all my old stories

Pencil and Ink on Paper I 22 x 30.5cm I 14-244

104. The origin of sihoti’e nioge (mud-dyed barkcloth)

Paint, Pencil and Ink on Paper I 56.5 x 77cm I 15-200

105. Mweje (ohu’o sabu deje, ije biwej’e, moköjö bineb’e, buboriano’e, mi’ija’ahe ohu’o dubudubi han’e) - Gardens (with spots of the wood-boring grub, boys chopping tree branches, chest feathers of the red parrot, beaks of the Papuan Hornbill, animal bones found while digging in the garden, and leaves of the dubi’e plant)

Paint, Pencil and Ink on Paper I 77 x 56.5cm I 15-202

106. Amami nioge (moköjö bineb’e, mi’ija’ahe, ije bi’weje, dubidubi’e, nenyai, mwe, sabu deje ohu’o buboriano’e) - Cloth of the Ancestors [The very first barkcloth design of the Ancestors (with chest feathers of the red parrot; animal bones found while digging in the garden; boys chopping tree branches; leaves of the dubi’e plant; women’s woven white shell headband; gardens; spots of the wood-boring grub and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill)]

Paint, Pencil and Ink on Paper I 77 x 56.5cm I 15-201

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

POA

View artwork

107. Uborida jowo tahgwe ohu’o isairov’e, horé hitahi’e [ije biweje, mi’ija’ahe, dubidubi’e han’e, moköjö bineb’e, mi ija ahe, nenyai ohu’o buborianö’e] - Bend in the flooding Jordan River (Uborida) [with boys chopping tree branches, old animal bones found while digging in the garden, white plants growing on mountaintops, chest feathers of the red parrot, animal bones found while digging in the garden, women’s woven white shell headband, and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill]

Paint, Pencil and Ink on Paper I 77 x 56.5cm I 15-205

108. Marai baj’e (ohu’o ije bi’weje, nenyai, moköjö bineb’e, mi ija ahe, dubudubi han’e, sabu ahe ohu’o buborianö’e) - Ancestors’ coastal shell jewellerytraditional Ömie wealth (with boys chopping tree branches, women’s woven white shell headband, chest feathers of the red parrot, animal bones found while digging in the garden, leaves of the dubi’e plant, spots of the woodboring grub, and beaks of the Papuan Hornbill)

Paint, Pencil and Ink on Paper I 56.5 x 77cm I 15-204

109. Vinöhu’e, taigu taigu’e ohu’o jö’o sor’e - Ujawé initiation rite tattoo design of the bellybutton, pattern of a leaf and uncurling fern fronds

Paint, Pencil and Ink on Paper I 56.5 x 77cm I 15-203

All prices exclude GST, Framing and Shipping.

1 https://blog.qagoma.qld.gov.au/yirrkala-drawings/

2 Old Sidonejo village was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Lamington (Huvaimo), which, “ began to erupt on the night of January 18, 1951. Three days later there was a violent eruption when a large part of the northern side of the mountain was blown away and devastating pyroclastic flows (steam and smoke) poured from the gap for a considerable time afterwards. The area of extreme damage extended over a radius of about 12 km, while people near Higaturu, 14 km from the volcano, were killed by the blast or burned to death. The pyroclastic flows and subsequent eruptions of dust and ash which filled streams and tanks, caused the death of some 3,000 people, and considerable damage. More than 5,000 people were made homeless.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Lamington). The Ömie people of Sidonejo then relocated to present day Savodobehi village.

3 Savodobehi village was named after this cave on Mount Ömie.

4 Vetara is sometimes also named and referred to as Insa.

5 Mount Madorajo’amoho is the volcanic peak of the greater volcanic caldera, Huvaimo (Mount Lamington).

6 The Dahorurajé clan is also called the Sidorajé clan.

7 The jé’o jarwé (menses hut) is also called ivi’ino’ové’tové. The ancient traditional practice for a woman to reside in isolation in the jé’o jarwé (menses hut), is still practiced in some villages such as Savodobehi (the village which now stands on the new site chosen by the original people of Sidonejo village after its destruction by the volcanic eruption of Mount Lamington in 1951). While walking to the river with my guides, I accidentally sighted/encountered a woman living in an isolation hut. On this occasion, I do not believe she was wearing a mud-dyed barkcloth as the Ancestors did, but simply a plain and undyed barkclothw.

8 Ab’i was one of the old high-altitude Sahuoté clan villages established by the Samorajé subclan, before the village was relocated to Budo. Budo was destroyed in Severe Tropical Cyclone Guba in 2007. The descendants of old Ab’i village now (as at 2021) live in Birrojo village. Original Sahuoté clan villages, as recalled by Willington Uruhé and Nanati (Albert Sirimi), are: Ini’abehi, Bafa, Tajobehi, Sari’amoho, Ohjibehi, Ahmaho, Gumubehi, Bisugobehi, Vava’e’mugeju, Amorebehi, Me’inobuno and Nahö.

9 All accounts of Enopé are from Ariré (Brenda Kesi). The village was destroyed during the eruption of Mount Lamington in 1951. Many Ömie, including Ariré’s family, moved to the Gora valley after the eruption.

10 Dahorurajé translates to ‘People of the Mountain’. The Dahorurajé clan are also known as the Sidorajé clan.

11 Lokirro’s wife was named Udu’a. Udu’a taught her daughter Joyce-Bella Mujorumo how to paint. JoyceBella Mujorumo taught her niece, Lila Warrimou (Misaso) how to paint. Udu’a, Joyce-Bella Mujorumo and Lila Warrimou (Misaso) are all women belonging to the Dahorurajé clan of old Sidonejo and Savodobehi villages.

12 For further information detailing Ömie Ujawé initiation rituals, see:

Rohatynskjy, Marta A., ‘Ujawe: The Ritual Transformation of Sons and Mothers’, in Bonnemere, Pascale (ed.), Women as Unseen Characters: Male Ritual in Papua New Guinea, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, United States of America, 2004, pp. 75-97

Rohatynskjy, Marta A., ‘The Larger Context of Ömie Sex Affiliation’, in Man (New Series), Vol. 25, No. 3 (Sep., 1990), Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. 434-453

Rohatynskjy, Marta A., ‘Culture, Secret, and Ömie History: A Consideration of the Politics of Cultural Identity’, in American Ethnologist: Journal of the American Ethnological Society, Vol. 24, No. 2, 1997, pp. 438456

13 At an old age, Isawdi still had the jö’o sor’e tattoos on her cheek as well as tattoos on her chin and arms.

14 American missionaries John F. Austing and June Austing translated Ömie into English in a Bible (Old Testament) translation project from 1962-1985, working primarily in Asapa village and also old Kero village, Gora. Christian songs were translated into Ömie language and a rigorous conversion practice began. Churches were built in Asapa and Gora, literacy programs conducted, and schools were built where they taught English language and religion. As at 2021, there are numerous different branches of Christian religions operating within Ömie territory, namely the: Roman Catholic Church, United Church, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Pentecostal, Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea, Baptist, and Church of Christ. Recently, the New Testament was also published in the Ömie language, titled God-are Jögoru I‘oho (The New Testament in the Ömie language of Papua New Guinea), Digital Bible Society/Wycliffe Bible Translators, June 19, 2017. The damage and loss caused to the Ömie people and their culture by the highly-mobilised religious conversion practices of the missionaries is incalculable and irreversible.

15 In Ömie culture, the term ‘mothers’ is an all-encompassing term that denotes your mother, grandmothers and aunts.

16 Translated by Alban Saré and Raphael Bujava, and transcribed by Brennan King at Gora Art Centre (between Anahobehi and Kinado villages, Gora), January 2010.

17 The Battle of Buna–Gona was part of the New Guinea campaign in the Pacific War during World War II. It followed the conclusion of the Kokoda Track campaign and lasted from 16 November 1942 until 22 January 1943.

18 Translated by Alban Saré and Raphael Bujava, and transcribed by Brennan King at Gora Art Centre (between Anahobehi and Kinado villages, Gora), January 2010.

19 ‘Towa’ is the word used by the Ömie for white people.

20 Translated by Alban Saré and Raphael Bujava, and transcribed by Brennan King at Gora Art Centre (between Anahobehi and Kinado villages, Gora), January 2010.

21 Determining her exact age at the time of Mount Lamington’s eruption was challenging, however Isawdi explained that she was a young woman and had already fully developed breasts at that time.

22 Her name ‘Fate’ is likely to be misspelled or a mispronunciation of the name ‘Faith’.

23 Willington Uruhé: Born: Unknown c. 1920. Title: Paramount Chief of Ömie men. Clan: Sahuoté . Born: Budo village (above present day Birrojo village). Lived: Budo and Gorabuna villages. Interviewed with his brother Nanati (Albert Sirimi) at Birrojo village in September, 2010.

24 Lina Hojéva married Dahorurajé clan-man, Ivabo (Stanley Hojéva), of Savodobehi village. Stanley and Lina provided this historical information at Savodobehi village in 2010. Translated by Raphael Bujava and transcribed by Brennan King.

25 Gagamo Regena belonged to the Barai language group. He was the traditional landowner of the sacred underground cave named Awa’i at Vavago on Misai clan lands. The Awai’i cave appears to be situated on the borderlands between the Ömie (Misai clan) and the Barai.

26 The Gora valley is on the far south-eastern side of Ömie territory, in Afore LLG, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea.

27 Ömie Artists Inc. (formerly NEMISS Inc., 2005-2009).

28 Barkcloth paintings by Filma Rumono can be found in the public collections of: the Chau Chak Wing Museum (Macleay Collections: ET2018.59), The University of Sydney, Australia; and The Fowler Museum of UCLA, California, United States of America. One painting was exhibited in Wisdom of the Mountain: Art of the Ömie, National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne, Australia, 2009, and is published in the exhibition catalogue, p.78.

29 Barkcloth paintings by Mary Naumo can be found in the public collections of: the Chau Chak Wing Museum (Macleay Collections: ET2018.71/ET2018.72/ ET2018.73), The University of Sydney, Australia; and The Fowler Museum of UCLA, California, United States of America.

30 There was also one male barkcloth painter, Nanati (Albert Sirimi) of the Sahuoté clan, born c.1935, however this appears to be a unique case. Ömie women are traditionally responsible for the production of barkcloth in all aspects. Managalas born elder Sarah Ugibari, born c.1919, has not been included in this group of first generation Ömie women because she married into Ömie circa 1940 and she grew up learning, painting and creating Managalas barkcloth designs. As my focus here is to explore the unique and generational underpinnings of specifically Ömie barkcloth as is contextually relevant to Isawdi’s art, an exploration of the stylistic relationships between Ömie and Managalas barkcloth would be the subject of further research. For our purposes here—if we are to understand the unique characteristics of what a distinctive, definitive Ömie style of barkcloth art looks like—one must examine the work of the Ömie women born prior to 1935. The following generation of prominent female Ömie barkcloth artists born between 1935-60, whose work is of exceptional cultural integrity with strong ancestral lineage, include: Misaso (Lila Warrimou), Kaaru (Celestine Warina), Jean-Margaret Hö’ijo, Mokokari (Dapeni Jonevari), Hirokiki (Botha Kimmikimmi), Iva (Fate Jina’emmi), Matosi (Mala Nari), Yéwo (Aspasia Gadai) and Owkeja (Elizabeth Guho).

31 2002-2006

32 This method is also consistent with a historic barkcloth painting by Nogi (born c.1900), a Dahorurajé clan artist said to have lived for over a hundred years, who passed away before the early days of the formation of the Ömie artist cooperative when David Baker first visited Savodobehi village in 2002.

33 However, the earliest record of a painting by Isawdi, created for Ömie Artists, was in 2008. The painting was taken to neighbouring Savodobehi village. It can be seen in the background of a photograph of artist Vivian Oviro (taken by Alban Saré).

34 The Wedding Song lyrics in Ömie language are: “Wowomo riroho ano eggo, niar’e sabero nuniro, va’eve” Translated from Ömie to English by Raphael Bujava. Transcribed by Brennan King. April 2014 at Gora art centre.

35 Recorded on 5th April 2014 at Gora art centre, translated from Ömie to English by Raphael Bujava. Transcribed by Brennan King.

36 At the time this information was recorded in 2010, Tabarigua’s son, Jackson Tabarigua, was living at Kinado, the next village over to Borrohojë at Gora in the Gora valley (Ömie territory, Afore Rural LLG, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea).

37 Translated by Alban Saré and Raphael Bujava, and transcribed by Brennan King at Gora Art Centre (between Anahobehi and Kinado villages, Gora), January 2010.

38 The design of dahoru’e (Ömie mountains) survived until most recently in the barkcloth paintings of Sahuoté clan elders Matosi (Mala Nari), Kaaru (Celestine Warina), Hirokiki (Botha Kimmikimmi) and Yéwo (Aspasia Gadai).

39 It is important to remember that the Ömies’ culture, customs and artistic practices evolved together and are inseparable.

40 Modjeska, Drusilla. Suja’s Daughters [ex. cat.], Andrew Baker Art Dealer, 2013, p.4

41 Most often, the red and yellow pigments are applied within the orriseegé (pathways).

42 Nanati [Albert Sirimi (c.1935–2012)] was taught to paint by his mother, Avarro, who was a Sahuoté clan Duvahe (Chief). They lived in the villages of Ab’i, Budo, Birrojo and Gorabuna.

43 Explanation by Nanati (Albert Sirimi), translation by Raphael Bujava, transcribed by Brennan King at Duharenu village, 2011.

44 Translated by Raphael Bujava, and transcribed by Brennan King, Gora Art Centre, 2012.

45 Rohatynskjy, Marta A., ‘The Larger Context of Ömie Sex Affiliation’, in Man (New Series), Vol. 25, No. 3 (Sep., 1990), Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, p. 445

46 The odunaigö’e (jungle vine) barkcloth and Ujawé tattoo designs also originate from this Ancestral story.

Credits

Online catalogue © Re D ot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore on the occasion of the exhibition:

The Art of Isawdi (Fate Savari)

1 Nov – 1 Dec 2021

TEXTS COURTESY

Introduction © Giorgio Pilla 2021

Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart: The Art of Isawdi (Fate Savari) © Brennan King 2021

IMAGES COURTESY

Artworks © Isawdi (Fate Savari). Courtesy Ömie Artists Inc.

Images © Brennan King. Courtesy Ömie Artists Inc.

Photography © Brennan King

All rights reserved. No parts of this catalogue may be copied, reprinted, reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the authors and copyright owners.