Echidna
"...My little stooge body moves through the undergrowth, steadily looking for tasty morsels. I snack all day on ants, termites and millipedes. Some say I am just a prickly girl, these quills are for my protection. I have beady eyes and a long nose, but I am one of the most beautiful natured entities. I will never bite any thing or one. As a ground dweller, I have a vast sky, and the stars at night speak of my dreaming. My sense of smell will lead me to the sweetest of crawlies, this nose is unique a mouth piece actually. The fresh dew falls on the leaves of my home, sunlight creates millions of sparkling diamonds that dance around my head. Sun's coming up and it is my time to bed, nasty predators would like to devour me, tasty, those upright mammals say...
...I am a woman of the Worimi, Biripi Nation, born in Sydney in 1962 and raised in the Thungatti Nation. My mother Lena Miranda is an Aboriginal woman and was the union of Susan Dingo and a Mauitius guard at Trial Bay Goal, last name Miranda. My father George Lovegrove is of English, Scottish and Irish blood. Writing and visual arts are my vocations. I am the librarian at Eora College of TAFE. I trained to be a librarian at the Charles Sturt University. The red-bellied black snake and the echidna are my totems."
Leanne Lovegrove 2021
Mind map