For NAIDOC Week, The Leprosy Mission Shop celebrates First Nations artists through gifts from Australian suppliers, featuring artwork rich in story and connection to Country.
NAIDOC Week is a time to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is also an opportunity to listen more closely to the creativity and knowledge that continue to shape this land.
This year’s theme, 50 Years of Deadly, marks five decades of honouring First Nations community, leadership and achievement.
During NAIDOC Week, we are taking a moment to recognise the artists whose work appears across a beautiful range of gifts, accessories and everyday pieces.
Art is not only something to hang on a wall. It can be held, worn, shared and carried into daily life. Through scarves, glasses cases, candles, body products and hair accessories, these designs bring colour, meaning and beauty into ordinary moments.
The featured collection is sourced for The Leprosy Mission Shop through Australian suppliers. We share each piece with care, recognising the artists and the stories woven through each design.
Each piece has been thoughtfully chosen for the creativity, care and meaning it carries. Every purchase also helps support people affected by leprosy and disability, with 100% of Shop profits going towards The Leprosy Mission’s projects.
Stories carried in colour
Across the collection, you will find artwork inspired by Country, family, memory, healing, bush flowers, waterholes, native animals and landscapes that hold meaning across generations.
The Vanilla Haze Body Mist and Blue Wren Hard Shell Glasses Case & Lens Cleaner Set feature artwork by talented First Nations artist Domica Hill. A Pakana woman and contemporary Aboriginal artist, Domica brings together traditional symbolism with modern colour, drawing inspiration from native flora, fauna and personal experience. Painting has been central to her healing and has become a way to share hope, connection and personal story.
The Shop also features two much-loved pieces by First Nations artists: the Wild Flowers Scarf by Pammy Foster and the Grandmother’s Country Scarf by renowned Indigenous artist Michelle Possum. Both are among the best-selling products in The Leprosy Mission Shop.
Pammy Foster is a Waramungu and Alyawarr woman who paints with the Epenarra artists collective. Her highly detailed, layered works capture the bush plants and landscapes of the Wutunugurra region. Her Wild Flowers artwork reflects the bright flowers that appear across Country in winter, with repeated motifs creating a rhythm that feels alive with movement and memory.
Michelle Possum’s work is deeply connected to family lands, sacred landmarks and Dreaming stories. She was taught by her father, Clifford Possum, one of the most renowned painters of the founding group of Papunya artists. Her Grandmother’s Country artwork includes plants, food resources, waterholes and people within the landscape, carrying strong connections to family, land and cultural knowledge.
Everyday gifts with deeper meaning
The Lemon Myrtle Soap and Scented Lemon Myrtle Candle Tin feature artwork by Jacinta-Rai Ridgeway-Maahs, a proud Worimi woman whose contemporary Aboriginal art is inspired by nature, family and ancestral stories.
Her work often uses earthy tones, peachy pinks, pastels and bold colour to reflect Country, community, culture, life and family. In her artwork, circles can represent community, connection and the cycle of life. Meeting places show where people gather and share stories. Pathways speak of movement, relationship and the ways we remain connected, even across distance.
The Our Country range features artwork by Justina Willis, including a glasses case, hair scrunchie, hair claw clip and rectangle summer scarf. Justina is a Melbourne-based artist whose vibrant work reflects the Pilbara hills, the colours of Country and her deep connection to family and storytelling. Her Our Country design speaks of bush foods, medicine, animals, rivers after rain and the relationship between people and land.
The Morning Mist range features artwork by Marlene Harold, whose pieces are available through the Shop as a rectangle scarf, glasses case and lens cleaner set, hair scrunchie and hair claw clip.
Marlene was born on Mt Florence Station in the Millstream Tablelands and began painting at Yinjaa-Barni Art in 2006. She has won multiple art awards, and her work has been collected in private collections in Australia. Her artwork has also been recognised nationally and internationally, including being collected by Queen Elizabeth II in 2011.
Her Morning Mist artwork reflects the wildflowers of her Country, blooming among spinifex grasses and watered by heavy rain and early morning mist. The colours in the painting represent flowers including Sturt desert pea, mulla mulla, wattle and blue gum.
Art, meaning and impact
A scarf, candle, glasses case or accessory may seem like a simple gift. But through The Leprosy Mission Shop, it can carry more.
Each purchase helps fund projects that support people affected by leprosy and disability, while giving customers a way to choose pieces with beauty, thought and story.
Thank you for shopping with care this NAIDOC Week, and for helping make a difference through every purchase.
For more stories like this, you can browse our full collection here!
