Omie mountains (with fruit of the Sihe tree, eggs of the Giant Spiny Stick Insect, spots of the wood-boring grub and pattern of a snake’s lip)
Celestine has painted traditional Sahuote clan designs. The lines that run through the painting are known as orriseege or pathways and provide a compositional framework for the design. The main zig zag design is the Omie mountains.
The diamond designs represent the fruit of the sihe tree. Sihe is a yellow fruit found in the rain forest and often eaten by cassowaries. In the time of the ancestors during times of tribal warfare, the Omie male warriors had no food while they were defending their borders so they survived by chewing the sihe fruit and spitting the pulp out.The siha'e design is sometimes also called vinphu'e, the men's tattoo design of the belly button. The diamond shape was tattooed around men's navals during the Ujawe initiation rite.
The short lines that run parallel through the dahoru'e and orriseege are undane une, the eggs of the Giant Spiny Stick Insect. The spots within the orriseege and dahoru'e is a design called sabu ahe representing the spots which can be seen on the sides of a wood boring grub. This grub is sacred to Omie people as it plays an important part within the creation story of how Huvaimo (Mt Lamington) came to be volcanic. It is a traditional soru'e (tattoo design) which was most commonly tattooed as a band of spots under each eye. Today it is applied to Omie people's faces for dance performances with natural pigment.
The lines that run diagonally edge to edge through the orriseege and dahoru'e are cobbure jo si'o si'o ve'e, the pattern of the snakes mouth.