For the Tiwi shells play and important part in both ritual and everyday life. Their meat is a source of food, and the surface of the shell is associated with spirituality and the songs sung during the Kulama - renewal ceremony. Here, orsto has represented the large shells in fine pattern of Jilamara - the Tiwi word for the designs of brightly coloured ochre patterns painted on the body for the Pukumani ceremony, in which participants’ bodies are covered in designs and sacred markings related to kin to disguise them from the spirits of the dead. These highly individuated forms drawn from a shared understanding of geometric motifs are also translated onto monumental carved tutini (burial poles) that are placed around grave sites.