Josephina Mekio Papua New Guinean, b. 1970

Josephina Mekio (Sela) paints her nioge (barckloth skirts) with the traditional custom stories of her ancestors, often related to her homeland where present day Godibehi village is situated, and its immediate surroundings. One of her key designs is jimu jimu sor’e, a design found around the forehead of a bird based on an important ancestral story related to the origins of Ömie nioge painting. She has been learning and training to paint for over a decade in line with cultural practices that maintain ancestral lineages and order within complex clan-based social systems. She paints her visually dynamic nioge designs with great cultural integrity.