Wagga artist Juanita McLauchlan gets a boost to take her work to the next level

Wagga Wagga artist Juanita McLauchlan is still in shock after it was announced on Tuesday that she had been awarded the $10,000 Windmill Trust Scholarship.

“I’m overwhelmed and still a bit stunned that it was me that got chosen,” she says.

The scholarship from the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) is all about promoting and supporting artists across regional and remote areas of NSW and Juanita says it’s a life-changing opportunity.

“I’ve got five kids, so this has given me a chance for my artwork to have a priority because I’ve always had to put it second,” she explains.

“It’s a chance to go big!”

The Gamilaraay woman is well known as a printmaker but will produce a new body of work that draws upon her First Nations identity and family history to explore family connections through body adornment.

The exhibition Everywhen will take centre stage at the Wagga Gallery in May next year.

“That’s going to be basically a combination of woollen blankets and then Aboriginal possum blankets and different adornments,” she says.

“So it will be quite challenging physically just with the size of the work, but it’s going to be quite beautiful and each piece has its own life and personality.”

In a statement, this year’s assessors, artist and 2021 scholarship recipient Dr Judith Nangala Crispin and artist and writer Matt Chun, said it was a unanimous decision.

“We are thrilled to support a project that contributes equally to First Nations culture and contemporary practice. McLauchlan’s work is utterly relevant and deeply rooted in culture. This is what it looks like when an Aboriginal artist stands up inside her power,” they said.

“McLauchlan’s project will strengthen her connection with land and provide a blueprint for others to do the same. Her proposal is a bold and compassionate act of truth-telling, as respectful of Country as it is of people.”

Juanita plans to travel to her Gamilaraay father’s ancestral Country at Kootingal, near Tamworth, and says reconnecting with ”lost” culture is a big theme in her work.

“We were never able to really talk about our culture because we’re told to keep quiet,” she says.

“So I think having that voice and that truth of where our family’s from has been a driving force behind it and I want to represent both sides of my identity.

“I feel that all the threads are coming together in a really positive and productive way.”

Juanita says there’s still plenty to do in preparation for the solo exhibition, but she is looking forward to taking her career to the next level.

“I’m just so thankful that I was given even this opportunity to do it,” she says.

“I’ll never forget this at all and the stepping stones and this amazing, amazing new track to follow.

“I think that’s the most exciting part.”