Hello

If our children don’t know these animals exist, why will they want to save them?

Hello my name is Penny and I am mum to twins Jack and Charlie.

Fabriculture and the flashcards are a project arose from the alarm I felt at an [indoor] playgroup I attended in 2018 when my boys were tiny.

The leader pulled a stuffed animal out of the box and said “what is this?”

Everyone [aged 3-5] replied with “Bunny Rabbit!”

It was a Bilby.

This really resonated with me and opened my eyes to what our children were being exposed to.

Clothing seemed to celebrate animals like foxes and cats that destroy our native wildlife and habitat.  A huge majority of animal based books were based on African or farm animals. Australian animal books concentrated on the standard – Kangaroo, Emu, Kookaburra, Wombat.

Where were all of our other animals?

It was this alarm that got me researching and drawing our more unusual and endangered Australian animals in 2019. I found a lot I’d never heard of.

I started this project not only to teach my boys, but also to take ownership of our amazing Australian animals get them into our vernacular. To go into a store and see a Dibbler or a Mala or an Ungee-Gungee on a T shirt, instead of celebrating the feral animals that destroy them.

Because if we as adults don’t recognise our native wildlife - how will our children?

The more animals I research, the more fascinated I’ve become. I hope some of that rubs off.