Louisa Lawson, an oft-forgotten but significant figure in Australian and Mudgee history is now a part of our modern history after a statue of the accomplished feminist and suffragist was put in place this week.
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The six-foot-tall statue lives outside the Mudgee Town Hall Library on Market Street after a successful fundraising campaign by a local Rotary club.
'More statues of animals than women'
The idea for a statue of Louisa began with an article in the publication The Monthly, written by academic Professor of Biology at Macquarie University, Lesley Hughes which chronicled Louisa's remarkable life. But it was a line in the piece that stuck out the most. It said:
Louisa has never been immortalised in bronze or stone, consistent with the observation that there are more monuments to animals in Australia than non-fictional women.
Mudgee Rotary Club President Chris Stephens read Lesley's piece in The Monthly and was surprised more was not commonly known about Louisa and her accomplishments other than perhaps the reductive fact that she was Henry Lawson's mother.
"She [Louisa] was significant but essentially unknown in Australian history - and that's when the penny dropped that she was born and raised in Mudgee and we now have a local sculptor that can can do the job. So let's see if we can put the two together towards that," Chris said.
The total cost of the statue's creation and placement cost approximately $115,000 with Council contributing $50,000 towards the project as well as the small spot on Market Street where the statue lives.
A monument to an amazing woman
Born in Guntawang in 1848 Louisa has been described as one of Australia's original feminists and 'the mother of women's suffrage'. The second of 12 children and raised in poverty, Louisa accomplished much in her life in addition to her work fighting for women's rights, including creating and publishing The Dawn, Australia's first journal produced solely by women.
The family spent many years in Mudgee and this was where Louisa met and married Niels Larsen, father of her five children which she raised mostly on her own.
Lesley Hughes, the academic that penned the Monthly piece that led to the statue's inception said it would be a fitting monument to an amazing woman.
"I first read about her in a book called Radical Sydney, which had a chapter about Louisa. I'd never heard of her before. But it was about her and the newspaper - and all of the things that she had done," Lesley said.
"It really just struck me that, like so many women in history that have been overlooked, especially when associated with a more famous man, that I felt her story deserved broader recognition.
"I really hope that if this statue does get built, and there's a plaque, it doesn't just say Louisa Lawson, Henry Lawson's mother, because that's not the point. She really turned out to be the most prominent and first public feminist in Australia."
Lesley said Louisa's accomplishments are still felt today by contemporary women.
"It would be great if it was the case that locals appreciated another member of the Lawson family - and frankly, personally for me, as a woman in New South Wales, getting the vote means a lot more to me than having some books of poetry.
"I would just really like to think that perhaps having a statue and a nice plaque that details a bit about her life, and her contribution helps people realise that a local identity in Mudgee had an enormous impact beyond the local area."
Sculpture's Mudgee conception
The sculpture was designed and created by Mudgee sculptor and relative of Chris, Margot Stephens. Margot's impressive body of work includes a bronze statue for the city of Newcastle of Joy Cummings, Australia's first female lord mayor.
Margot said the statue of Joy has more parallels with Louisa than we might think.
"I had just finished - the unveiling of Joy Cummings. And that was a really exciting sculpture because she was such a dynamic woman, and had broken so many taboos," Margot said.
"We don't realise how far as women we have come in business and our general everyday lives [that] we take for granted. And Louisa Lawson is even more important, because she initiated the whole fight for women to have the vote in New South Wales.
"Without Louisa there wouldn't have been a Joy Cummings. And she's local, that's the other extraordinary thing. She's a woman that grew up in this region. And worked on a property and had children and was passionate about education."
Margot has a vision for the sculpture that hasn't yet been finalised but represents a likely preview of the statue. A sketch shows Louisa sitting atop a number of books while writing a poem. The spine of each book will represent a different accomplishment in Louisa's life.
