It must be Christmas!

Each year Australia Post releases stamps that celebrate the Christmas season, spanning both traditional and secular themes. This year’s religious Christmas stamps will feature the art of Leopoldine Mimovich OAM (1920­­­-2019) from the ACU Art Collection.

In these joyous paintings, the traditional Christmas story of the birth of Christ is presented in an Australian setting, complete with a rich array of native flora and fauna. The 65c stamp shows a stately Madonna and child amid the colourful Australian bush and an array of native flora, including Banksia wattle, eucalypt and waratah. Various animals, such as a magpie, kookaburra, owl, koala, possum, wallaby, sulphur-crested cockatoo and parrots are perched in the foliage, as if paying homage to the Christ Child. The international stamp, $2.60, shows the more domestic scene of Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus. Their setting suggests the manger but, instead of the traditional cattle and sheep, they are attended by native animals and their young in the bush.

Australia Post’s interest in the artworks was piqued after it became aware of the ACU Art Collection through our cataloguing on eHive management system and promotion of the collection on TROVE.

“From a curatorial perspective, and through connections made, this development represents an exciting outcome of a four-year project,” ACU Curator, Caroline Field said.

The Australia Post Christmas stamps will become available in late October.