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In 2009, Ngarita Johnstone donated a sizeable collection of artworks to the Macmillan Brown Collection. It spans generations, mediums, and artists, encompassing works by Ngarita, her father James Johnstone, and students whom she taught, offering insight into the development of the design movement in Canterbury and the history of the Ilam School of Fine Arts (previously known as the Canterbury College School of Art).

Originally from Scotland, James Johnstone immigrated to New Zealand in 1925, where he took up the post of Crafts and Design Master at the Canterbury College School of Art. He was an influential teacher, and brought with him the techniques and styles most strongly associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. His daughter Ngarita was born in 1928, and would grow up to be immensely talented, despite often feeling as though she was in her father’s shadow. She attended art school from 1946-50, studying design and majoring in embroidery, as this was the only subject her father did not teach her in (even though she strongly disliked the subject!). James’ contemporaries and Ngarita’s teachers were some of the most influential and important artists in Canterbury, and included Francis Shurrock, Bill Sutton, Ivy Fife and Florence Akins. They were both interested in depicting the landscapes of Canterbury and wider New Zealand, and James regularly exhibited his oil paintings at shows such as ‘The Group’ and the Canterbury Society of Arts.