The Gnawnster
Figure 1. The Gnawnster.
Source: Figure reproduced from Canva (2024).
Why An Anti-Mascot?
Life isn't rainbows and unicorns or butterflies and bees. It isn't. I can tell you from personal experience and 52.x years that life
is difficult, challenging and awful. Mascots add soul to an organisation or project. Sometimes, it is the anti-mascot, such as The Gnawnster, who needs their time in the spotlight. This is our enemy and the injustice and inequality that we must overcome to ensure everyone gets enough nutrition to function and heal when necessary.
I birthed The Gnawnster in the first assignment of Systems Thinking. What better way to add some spice to the dull humdrum "thou must be sustainability aware" and "thou must achieve the SDGs" and "thou must be a mindless babboon and repeat what all the environmentalist influencers crapulate on about" and "though must obey the mighty instutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations and the World Health Organisation". Too many thous now? I'm all for being sustainable, but it's become a bit too much of a fad where everyone must be seen to be doing something and not doing in reality. I want to be different. I want to be a walker and a talker. I want to thrust my hands into loamy, worm-ridden Earth and plant the seeds of nutrition for all to come and sup at while we talk about 'sup.
Why The Gnawnster?
I'll be honest. I've felt that feeling in my guts, the one that says I need to eat, more than I've had poops in a scoop. In fact, the gnawnster claws his nails down the inside of my stomach right now. It's a dull pain and one that reaches from beneath the ribs to halfway to the belly button. That is an emptiness that only food can fill. There are reasons as to why I am choosing not to eat. Some are financial and others are accessibility reasons. I don't like this feeling, this gnawing at my guts, but I have to live with it, as do 3.7 million other families in Australia. (Foodbank 2021) I think that number stinks. The media would have us believe that we are a developed nation. We have a huge continent and only 26 million people (Worldometre 2024). More than 10 percent of the Australian population is food insecure. Something to be proud of on Australia Day? I think not!
So, the gnaw in The Gnawnster comes from that feeling of hunger in the belly. The nster in The Gnawnster evolved from the word monster. Hunger is a monster and it is a man made monster. It doesn't need to exist. Nearly 8 million tonnes of food is wasted in Australia every year (Foodbank 2024). This is edible food. Food goes to waste while people starve. It boggles the mind. This is a nation full of educated, caring and enlightened people, right? Right? Hmm.
The Gnawnster will appear in blogs, on occasion, as a fictional character with the idea of raising awareness and understanding about food insecurity and ways we can tackle it from the bottom up. I've learned the hard way that dif you depend on the powers-that-be to assist, you'll be a skeleton before they lift a finger. If you've had a run-in with this scary empty stomach wearing an evil grin, I'd love to hear about it and if you like, I'd enjoy sharing the story with others in a way that paints you as the beautiful person you are. If the "Contact" button isn't working, try the email address.
Finally, expect The Gnawnster to arrive, bedecked in pink and black yarn and stuffed fuller than my own belly, when I source or create a crochet pattern for him. No, he will not be for sale. He will simply be The Gnawnster, the anti-mascot of the eventual, I hope, Curtin Veggie Garden.