Royalties from this product directly benefit the Aboriginal artist Antonia Napangardi Michaels and her community.

Australian made Aboriginal art decoration. Hang an original bit of Australia in your home!

The colourful Christmas Decoration has been created by Bits of Australia through a collaboration with Australian makers and artists.

The beautiful ornament has been hand made in Victoria and features stunning Aboriginal artwork by Antonia Napangardi Michaels from the Warlukurlangu Art Centre in Central Australia. The centre is a non-for-profit organisation that is 100% Aboriginal owned by its artists from the remote communities of Yuendumu and Nyirripi.

Product Details:

Decoration: Single digitally printed pine plywood decoration 2.5mm thick with a red ribbon
Size: 7cm wide by 8cm high
Artist: Antonia Napangardi Michaels
Artwork: Printed both sides with the artwork 'Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa' (Lappi Lappi Dreaming). Artist information also printed on the back
Country of Manufacture: Made in Australia
Packaging: Decoration hangs on a small card with artist information
Social Impact: Royalties from the sale of the decoration directly benefit the Aboriginal artist Antonia Napangardi Michaels and her community

Antonia Napangardi Michaels was born in Alice Springs Hospital in 1998, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote aboriginal community located approximately 420 km north-west of Alice Springs and approx. 130 km north-west of Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is the daughter of Andrea Nungarrayi Wilson and Chris Japanangka Michaels and granddaughter of Alice Nampijinpa Henworth, all major Warlpiri artists. Antonia went to St Mary’s School in Broome, graduating in 2012. When she finished school, she went back to Nyirripi and worked at the Learning Centre run by the Batchelor Institute, an Indigenous Tertiary Education Program, where Antonia assisted students with computer skills.

Antonia began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, in 2010 when she was 12 yrs old and again in 2014 when she was 16 yrs. Antonia continues the family tradition of artists painting her Grandmother’s Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa(Lappi Lappi Dreaming) and her father’s Janganpa Jukurrpa (Bush-tailed Possum Dreaming), stories which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her Parents and their parents before them for millennia.  She learnt to paint first at school and then by watching all the family paint. She uses an unrestricted palette to depict her traditional iconography, at the same time developing a modern individualist style, using pattern in a variety of contexts.

Antonia is married and has one son born in 2017. When she is not painting, or working she loves to go hunting for bush tucker with family and friends.

The decoration makes a small ethical gift for Christmas. It is perfect for family, friends and corporate gifting. Lightweight it is also a unique Australian gift to send overseas.