Port Augusta artist Juanella McKenzie wins Breaking Ground award from Country Arts SA
The winner of Country Arts SA’s Breaking Ground award will use it to research and develop artistic traditions from her Flinders Ranges homelands as part of the SALA Festival.
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Port Augusta artist Juanella McKenzie was so excited to win the Breaking Ground award as part of this year’s SALA Festival that she couldn’t sleep – so she went shopping for materials.
“It was about 3am … I was browsing art supplies online to calm down,” she said.
“So I went and bought 10 metres of canvas for the exhibition as a way to celebrate.”
The visual arts professional development prize is presented by Country Arts SA and includes $10,000 to develop a solo exhibition at Light Square Gallery for the 2021 event and another $5000 to undertake a mentorship.
An Adnyamathanha (Flinders Ranges) and Luritja (Central Desert) woman, McKenzie sold her first painting to a Dutch tourist at the Old Ghan Restaurant in Hawker when she was just 12 and knew then that she wanted to be a professional artist.
“My elders teach me the stories of the Adnyamathanha, my grandfather’s people, as we paint,” she said.
“Now a mother of small children, my artistic practice has grown to include teaching and mentoring them and other family members, alongside my mother Regina.”
In turn, McKenzie, 30, will be mentored by independent curator Jessica Clark, a Melbourne-based Palawa (Tasmania) woman with English, Irish, Turkish, and French ancestry.
“This award will allow me to explore new media, new techniques in my art and my quest to explore my identity as an Aboriginal woman, living in a modern world, raising three strong and proud Aboriginal daughters,” McKenzie said.
The artist uses materials ranging from natural ochre and acrylic paint to emu feathers and fat, plant fibres, leaves and bark.
She will also use the Breaking Ground award to research her homelands in the Flinders Ranges and access historic cultural recordings of her grandfather, senior law man Malcolm McKenzie.
“At the core of it is how I can practice culture continuation and delve deep into the culture of my homelands. I want to tell the dreaming stories of my people, my mob.”
The SALA Festival, which celebrates the work of South Australian Living Artists, will run throughout August.
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, this year artists can continue to register shows to be held either online or at physical venues, up until August 31.
Program at salafestival.com