I'm a Tolai girl from the island of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea. And today, I'm standing in one of Australia's most prestigious art galleries - the National Gallery of Victoria - to come and to see the artwork of my wantoks - my fellow countrymen - the Omie people.

Namila Benson: Visitors are a rare and celebrated event for many Omie, who live in the isolated villages of Oro province, on the steep slopes of Mount Lamington. Most villages have no electricity, television or radio. They do have a strong story telling tradition through song, dance and the bark cloth they wear.

Now the Omie are sharing an insight into their culture with Australian audiences at the National Gallery of Victoria. Here, their bark cloth designs, or nioge, are celebrated in an exhibition called "Wisdom of the Mountain".

It's the first exhibition of contemporary art from Papua New Guinea held at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Lilias Bujava, artist: Bogobise'oho nimorejeve gavajoho. (I have great pride when I see it.)

Sana Balai, Assistant Curator of Indigenous Art: This is groundbreaking because Pacific art is commonly known as men's work, men do the carving, whereas this one is all done by women. And also it's done by the living artist.

Lilias Bujava: Na hi aboji omoho ijorojaje jabumë 'ehi vae be va'o'ë. Va'o'ë va'o'ë va'inimaruji. (My daughters they will apply the same designs and they want it to continue.)

Namila Benson: The Omie people have been making bark cloth from the mulberry tree for centuries.

Lilias Bujava: Niogo unimo muonu govonugoromo bamonugoromo majare wami girihego rionugorömo. Wairomo barenugoromo vevare aroho biriroho wadaho barigoho biriroho husövoromo ëhuro niogoho wajarueji. (First is to take the bark out of the tree, the inner part is to be beaten and dried in the sun. To finish, the fruit of the aroho tree, the leaf of the birire plant, and the leaf of the tulip tree are squeezed to make the paint.

Namila Benson: The designs reflect the tattoos on their ancestors' bodies and the Omie's deep connection to their land. Black lines are significant, representing authority and status.

Sana Balai: This particular one happens to be our favourite one. It's done by Lila Gama. Lila Gama is the paramount chief of Omie women. She's affirming her authority and letting the viewer know that, "I am the chief", I am the one and foremost who is qualified to do the black line.

Namila Benson: While the women make and design nioge, the men market it overseas to generate income for the Omie, a tribe of less than 2000 people.

Lilias Bujava: Nome ehi je'e muoho bogojego. Ehuni nome raromoromo bogo bisë' vavanoho bejaruieji. (We women don't have many jobs. That's how we women live and our sorrow is great.)

Alban Sare, Nemiss Business Group: The main way to be helped is that we need proper services. Just like implementing (a) better air strip, just because we live high isolated in the mountains, so the better services to be provided is through (an) air strip where we can get better assistance to import and export our product internationally.

Namila Benson: The National Gallery says Australia has a role to play.

Sana Balai: Pacific is Australia's closest neighbour. It is now time to try and bring it forward to be part of the art world.

Female gallery visitor: This is beautiful. We're privileged to see this. It's fantastic.

Male gallery visitor: Just getting up close to them is quite kinda special because they're very...you can tell they're made with a lot of love and they're very intimate so it's really important to be able to see this in this context and see them up really close.

Female gallery visitor: I love it. I'm familiar with tapa cloths but there's so much stuff, so many patterns and intricate designs here that I've never seen before so I'm actually quite surprised.

Female gallery visitor: In Tonga we also do bark cloth and I don't know, I have visions of our art sitting here also. So, I applaud Papua New Guinea, the women. It's amazing!