diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 34714ff57a0213640ac70e9f06f18eb5c9bb3795..89c78516fcfeb5340fcb7aa33a2501f9f8327811 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -33,7 +33,13 @@ COPY . .
 
 RUN adduser --home /app --no-create-home --system --uid ${AURA_UID} --group app
 RUN mkdir -p /app/logs
+# static/admin and site_media are named volumes which we use across multiple
+# containers. We therefore create them here and set the permissions right away
+# since named volumes otherwise create these directories themself as the root 
+# user.
 RUN mkdir -p /app/static/admin
+RUN mkdir -p /app/site_media
+# set permissions
 RUN chown -R app:app /app
 
 USER app