Kongkong (the White Fish-hawk Ancestor)
Wik Mungkan · deity · Wik Mungkan traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Kongkong is the white fish-hawk, or osprey, one of the Wik-Mungkan pulwaiya of western Cape York. In the myth recorded by Ursula McConnel, the fish-hawk ancestor is bound up with the origin of the fishing-net, so that the story both accounts for a technology of daily subsistence and inaugurates the bird's totemic cult. Totems of this kind were commonly drawn from the objects of utility around which daily life centred.
Domains
- fishing
Powers
- to multiply its species at the totemic increase-site
Epithets
- pulwaiyaMcConnel, Ursula H. 'The Wik-Munkan Tribe of Cape York Peninsula.' Oceania 1, no. 1 (1930): 97-104; no. 2 (1930): 181-205. (secondary)
Sources
- Kongkong, the white fish-hawk (osprey), is a named Wik-Mungkan totemic ancestor whose myth, recorded by Ursula McConnel, is connected with the origin of the fishing-net.: McConnel, Ursula H. Myths of the Munkan. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1957. (secondary); South Australian Museum, AA 191 Ursula Hope McConnel Collection, Series AA 191/16 'Texts, mainly in Wik-Mungkan', item AA 191/16/24, 'Myth of Kongkong the White Fish-hawk and the Fishing-net'. (primary)