By now you’ve seen his face plastered around Adelaide courtesy of Peter Drew, the artist regularly prompting the public to ask what exactly it is that makes us ‘Aussie’.

His name is Monga Kahn, and, as Peter will tell you, he was a formative member of Australian society, and one of a small number of non-white people allowed into the country during the time of our historically embarrassing White Australia policy.

Why someone would choose to come into a country that sought to so specifically exclude them is an interesting question, and is the heart of Peter’s latest project: The Legend of Monga Kahn, an Aussie Folk Hero.

Launching tonight at the South Australian Museum, the book is a compilation of short stories, poems and illustrations, all imagining what would have driven Monga to make for Australia, either despite or in spite of the White Australia policy.

A welcome addition to the canon of Australian folk heroes.