Celebrating all the reasons our communities made their Mother’s day
Inspired by the possibilities of motherhood and the unique and various roles Mums and mother figures play in all our lives, we’ve developed a national campaign to celebrate Mother’s Day by inviting our unique and diverse communities to “make your Mother’s day.” This gives us the opportunity to celebrate to celebrate the individual and nuanced bonds that exist within local Stockland communities right across Australia.
We know that Mums often get thanked for the big milestone moments in celebrations of Mother’s Day, but what’s often overlooked are the beautifully messy and equally memorable fabric of moments in between. So this year, to remind Aussies of all the reasons why they should make their Mother’s day, we connected with our communities directly to understand and celebrate their own special memories with Mum.
Our 2024 campaign, “Whatever the reasons, make your Mother’s day”, recognises all the everyday moments as well as the extraordinary moments shared with local Mums and mother figures in Stockland communities. Partnering with artists (and Mums themselves) Elin Matilda Andersson, Andrea Innocent and Kimberly Engwicht, we reimagined real and deeply personal memories from our own community members into nine illustrated mementos captured beautifully in full colour. Not only did our suite of original illustrations feature right across the national campaign, poster prints were gifted to our community members whose treasured memories are showcased. From twinning at picnic lunches to Sunday morning snuggles, each artist was given three memories to bring to life in their own unique styles.
Meet the artists
ELIN MATILDA ANDERSSON
@_elinmatilda
Elin Matilda Andersson is a Swedish-Australian illustrator, artist and designer based in Sydney. Her major influences are her Scandinavian roots and the wonder of Australian nature; the power of community building; and watching her four-year-old daughter take on the world.
ANDREA INNOCENT
@andrea_innocent
Andrea Innocent is an award-winning illustrator known for her unique characters and worlds that are loaded with humour and charm. She juggles parenthood alongside co-owning an indie fashion brand with her partner, lecturing on illustration, personal exhibitions and commercial illustration projects. When she’s not drawing you will find Andrea exploring her forest garden with her young son.
KIMBERLY ENGWICHT
@k.rae.designs
Kimberly Engwicht is a proud Bundjalung and South Sea Islander full-time artist, business owner and mother of two children. Her artworks range from cartoon style characters to pop culture icons to fantasy mixed with realism landscape illustrations. She aims to connect audiences of all ages through icons and illustrations inspired by popular culture. She grew up not being exposed to her culture so connecting to Country and its surrounds is very grounding for her as she continues to learn more.
We asked each artist what drew them to being involved in this project:
Elin: Storytelling is at the core of any great creative outcome, and what a lovely opportunity this was to tell the story of real and cherished memories. Mums are the best!
Andrea: The project appealed in a couple of ways, firstly I appreciated the opportunity to create something unique to celebrate a mum when all too often it is the mums creating sweet celebrations for their family and friends. Mothers Day can feel complicated and empty when it is looked at through a commercial lens however this project was focussing on human connection not just gift giving. And secondly I liked the challenge of illustrating a memory which was very personal to the couple involved and just how I was then going to convey the love and connection between the mother and child, hopefully I managed to do that.
Kimberly: I really loved the special moments I was able to capture in my illustrations. Each one showed a unique memory between the individuals and their Mums. Bringing those memories to life was just so beautiful.
We also asked each artist to share a unique and special memory with their own Mums:
Elin: Growing up, I have fond memories of spending time with my mom in the kitchen. She is an amazing baker and I often got to “help” her create delicious Swedish treats, especially during the Christmas season. She would also take me out for cross country skiing adventures across frozen lakes, occasionally stopping for a hot chocolate break and taking in the beautiful winter landscape together.
Andrea: I have so many lovely memories and continue making more with my own son and my mother as much as I can. One that sticks out to me today is when I was going through a particularly rough time during high school, it felt like months and months of deep sadness. One day when I returned home and threw my bag down my mum showed me an advertisement in a local paper for Dalmatian x Samoyed puppies and said "I thought maybe we should go have a look at them". I'm not saying you can solve teenage depression with puppies but boy it's a good start and it made me realise she could see I was struggling. I'll never forget sitting amongst 10 puppies smiling and seeing my mum smiling back at me. (For the record we only got one but there were 10 to choose from!).
Kimberly: My Mum and I are truly best friends. There is not a day that goes by without talking multiple times over the phone during the course of the day. If I'm happy, sad, angry, anxious or looking for someone to vent to - Mum is always there. A special moment I share with my Mum, was her being around when my little ones were born. Those first few weeks after birth are some of the hardest weeks of a mother's life and I'm so grateful that my Mum was there to lend a hand and support me and my husband during that time. Having her around to help with bub, give advice, cook, clean and look after us as a family is something I'll cherish forever.
To see how some of the illustrations have come to life, visit our Mother's Day campaign page here.
Our Privacy Policy sets out how we, Stockland Corporation Limited and our related companies and trusts (“We”), collect, use, store, disclose and manage your personal information. More information can be found here.
