Louisa Lawson (1848–1920)

Poet, publisher, and feminist Louisa Lawson was a pivotal figure in the Australian suffrage movement and a tireless campaigner for women's rights. Writing after her death, the Sydney Sun described her as 'one of the most remarkable women New South Wales has produced'.¹

Born near Mudgee, NSW, Lawson was the second of 12 children of Henry and Harriet.² In 1866 she married Niels (Peter) Hertzberg Larsen (later anglicised to Lawson) and they had five children, including the poet Henry Lawson.³ The couple took up a selection at Eurunderee where Louisa sewed and raised livestock during her husband's frequent absences for work. In 1883 Lawson moved to Sydney, taking in boarders and laundering to support the family. She bought the Republican newspaper in 1887, for which she and Henry edited and largely wrote. 

Using the pen-name 'Dora Falconer', Lawson founded The Dawn in 1888, a monthly journal which she described as 'the Australian Woman's journal and mouthpiece'.⁴ Through it she advocated for women's economic, legal and political rights, writing most of the content for each issue. The Dawn's reach extended throughout Australia and overseas.

In 1889, Lawson launched the Dawn Club, which met to campaign for women's suffrage. Appointed to the NSW Womanhood Suffrage League’s inaugural council in 1891, she joined its rival organisation, the Women's Progressive Association two years later. Lawson's activism also extended beyond suffrage, as she also staunchly supported women’s and children’s social reforms. 

Beset by poverty and ill health, she died at the Gladesville Hospital for the Insane,⁵ her death notice stating, 'literary writer, mother of Henry Lawson, and pioneer of womanhood suffrage in NSW'.⁶

Artist's note
Heather Radi wrote that Lawson, 'Big-boned, as befitted a countrywoman, she is to be remembered for her reply to the editor of the Bulletin's 'Red Page': "And why shouldn't a woman be tall and strong?"'⁷

My experience of living in outback communities brought me into contact with many women like Lawson – practical, resourceful and determined. I wanted her image to reflect those characteristics as well as her clear-eyed analysis of what needed to be done to improve the lives of women. 

It was through practical means, such as publishing The Dawn, that Lawson advocated her ideas. Eighty years later her trail-blazing actions were replicated in the second wave of feminism with feminist publications such as Lip and graphic art studios such as Matilda Graphics, educating the next generation of feminists.⁸

I cropped the image of Lawson to bring the focus firmly onto her strong features. I coloured her in warm tones and stained the background text, copied from a page in The Dawn, with the colour of the red soil of inland Australia to indicate her country roots and down-to-earth activism. The Dawn masthead is gently coloured to indicate the sun rising on a new era for women which was made possible, in no small part, by Lawson's advocacy and actions.

1. 'Woman's Champion', The Sun, 22 August 1920, p. 17, accessed 27 June 2024.
2. Heather Radi, 'Lawson, Louisa (1848–1920)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed 27 June 2024.
3. Brian Matthews, 'Lawson, Henry (1867–1922)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed 27 June 2024.
4. 'About Ourselves,' The Dawn, 15 May 1888, p. 1, accessed 27 June 2024.
5. Brian Matthews, Louisa, McPhee Gribble, Melbourne, 1987, 368–69, 397.
6. The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 1920, p. 12, accessed 14 July 2024.
7. Heather Radi, 'Lawson, Louisa (1848–1920)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed 17 December 2024.
8. The Lip anthology: an Australian feminist arts journal, Vivian Ziherl, ed., Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 1976–84; 'Matilda Graphics', Australian Prints + Printmaking, accessed 17 December 2024.