TITLE: Burrow of the ground-burrowing spider and its tracks

Patricia Warera has created an ancestral sihoti'e taliobanFe (design ofthe mud) known as um'ohohe representing the burrow of the ground-burrowing spider, as well as the tracks the spider makes in the earth around its burrow Patricia creates this design just as she was taught by her mother, the late artist, Brenda Kesi (Ariré). This design can be traced to the the old Ematé clan village of Enopé which was abandoned due to the 1951 eruption of Huvaimo (Mount Lamington). Patricia's mother, Brenda, recalls how, she learnt from her mother Go'ovino grandmother). And before that, Go'ovino was taught by her mother, Munne (Patricia' great-grandmother). She explains how in the old days of making bark-cloths the women had no paints so they would soak the barkcloth in mud, cut the desired pieces and then sew them onto the plain barkcloth. The contrasting effects would result in various bold visual designs. The design was sewn with a flying fox/bat-wing bone needle and a river reed was shredded to create the sewing thread.

The Ömie creation story tells of how the very first sihoti'e nioge (mud-dyed barkcloth) was created by Suja, the first Ömie woman and mother ofthe world, under instruction from Mina, the first Ömie man, after she experienced her first menstruation. Suja dyed the plain barkcloth in the reddish volcanic clay/river mud at the River Uhojo at the base of the sacred Mount Obo. Suja wore the mud-dyed barkcloth during her menstruation and lived in seclusion in a small hut known as jé'o jarwé (also called ivi'ino'ové'tové) for its duration. These sihoti'e nioge designs are closely related to and symbolic of women's procreative power.