Aunty's Dispatch: Brandi Salmon's Snail Mail Club Connects Aboriginal Culture with Joy

Brandi Salmon, a Wiradjuri artist based in Hobart, Tasmania, runs Aunty's Dispatch, a monthly snail mail club that sends handmade letters, prints, and cultural spotlights to about 560 subscribers worldwide. Salmon, who lives on Palawa land near Nipaluna (Hobart), started the club eight months ago to create a slower, more personal connection to her art and to share Aboriginal history and culture in an accessible way. Each dispatch includes a letter, a print of a new artwork, a Blak History Spotlight, and sometimes a sticker, all made by Salmon in her home studio. The club has attracted international subscribers from Germany, Palo Alto, Honolulu, and London, with 50-60% of pen pals being non-Indigenous allies. Salmon, who also has inattentive ADHD and is autistic, sees the club as a way to capture 'Blak joy' amid heavy political and emotional times. She emphasizes that the mail is handmade and personal, not AI-generated, and hopes it educates and connects people with Aboriginal culture. Salmon has been running her art business for five years, focusing on oil paintings that explore Aboriginal identity and her experiences as a woman raised off Country in Victoria but with traditional lands near Dubbo, NSW.