Mother Platypus

This artwork depicts the female platypus and the strong bond and protection the mother has for her children. Once the female lays her young she will wait on the nest protecting her eggs with no food and no water, when the eggs hatch she will nurse her young until they are big enough to leave the nest and will only then eat when she teaches her young how to hunt for food. Her young will stay with her until they are ready to leave the nest, this may be up to 5 years, within this time she is a fierce protector of her young and even has a poisonous spur that only the females have. The patterns in the green represent the waterways where the platypus lives, the U symbols represent the people that are connected to the platypus and are responsible for caring for the platypus, as well as, for the health of the waterways. The black wavy lines represent the river of life that the people will flow through, each dot represents an ancestor they are related to. The three figures are spirits that will protect and guide the people as they watch and observe from sky country.