JOEL SAM | 'Kongasau' | Linocut print

Kongasau

This story is from the people of Saibai who belong to the TABU (snake) clan. The men of Uruil Kawa, a village in the swamps of Saibai, had a favourite sport (kerapatam sagul)target play which they practised daily.  It was a simple game which consisted only of throwing sticks at a target, such as a log.  Before they began to play one day, the men decided that the player who threw the best should receive the girl, Adasakalaig for wife.  She was a prize worth winning, being so beautiful that she did no work and sat all day long on a (wakuniaingawakaz) fine mat.

There was one man who had said nothing during the discussion of Adasakalaig.  This man, Kongasau, did not enter the competition and quietly slipped away, his going unnoticed by everyone except Adasakalaig.  He spent two days at Maringulainga near Saibai village and then he returned to Uruil Kawa, arriving after the men had commenced target play.  Again he stayed out ot he game, merely standing to one side of the men and watching them.  He spoke to no one.

Adasakalaig went to him & said  why did you go away? When the men missed you, they searched for you for a long time.  Kongasau answered I heard the men decide to compete for you as prize for their days sport.

Adasakalaig begged Kongasau to take her with him to Saibai village. They waited until the men started their game, then they left, no one noticed them leaving.  They left Uruil Kawa as the sun was setting.  As they crossed the swamp that night they played a game of hide and seek.  Sometimes Kongasau hid from the girl, she called to him & looked for him in amongst the bushes and reeds until she found him.  They took turn in playing this game.  She did not know that the man she had chosen to be her husband was a ghost (mari).

Just before they reached Maringulainga, Kongasau disappeared, she tried to find him, Kongasau! Kongasau!, she called many times, the air was silent and still.  Then Adasalaig heard a whistling sound, it was repeated three times.  She ran towards it & saw a snake slithering away into the scrub.  A yellow bellied black snake with a thin red stripe from the tip of its head to the tip of its tail. Kongasau, the ghost whom she had believed to be a man, had changed into a snake.  Adasakalaig searched for Kongasau until day broke.  But she could not find him, & she never saw him again.

Joel Sam’s family lives in Bamaga, Cape York, and originates from Saibai Island in the Torres Strait. Born on Thursday Island in 1977, he currently lives in Cairns, having finished his art studies in 2005 with a Diploma of Art from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Visual Arts Course at the Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE. Since then he has been developing an art practice and technical skills in the media of linocut, sculpture and etching.

Joel Sam is a regular exhibitor at NorthSite Contemporary Arts. Joel's works are held in the collections of the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Burnie Regional Art Gallery, the Cairns Regional Gallery and the Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra. Recently Joel Sam was the recipient of the Premier's Award for Exellence - The Queensland Government prize at the Cairns Indigeous Art Fair in 2024. 

JOEL SAM | 'Kongasau' | Linocut print | Edition of 20 | 80 (h) x 121 (w) cm