Sally Jane Morgan, (born 18 January 1951) is an Australian Aboriginal author, dramatist, and artist. Morgan’s works are on display in numerous private and public collections in Australia and around the world.
Morgan was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1951 as the eldest of five children. She was raised by her mother and grandmother. Her father passed away after a long-term battle with post-war experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
As a child, Morgan became aware that she was different from other children at her school because of her non-white physical appearance, and was frequently questioned by other students about her family background. Her mother never told her she was Aboriginal, saying instead that she was of Indian-Bangladeshi descent. She understood from her mother that her ancestors were from the Indian sub-continent. But when she was 15 she learned that she and her siblings were actually of Aboriginal descent, from the Bailgu people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The story of her discovery of her family’s past is told in the 1987 multiple biographies My Place, which sold over half a million copies in Australia. It has also been published in Europe, Asia and the United States. My Place tells stories that many people didn’t know; of children taken from their mothers, slavery, abuse and fear because their skin was a different colour.
Sally Morgan’s second book, Wanamurraganya, was a biography of her grandfather. She has also collaborated with artist and illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft on children’s books, including Dan’s Grandpa (1996).
Morgan is the director at the Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts at the University of Western Australia. She has received several awards: My Place won the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission humanitarian award in 1987, the Western Australia Week literary award for non-fiction in 1988, and the 1990 Order of Australia Book Prize. In 1993, international art historians selected Morgan’s print Outback, as one of 30 paintings and sculptures for reproduction on a stamp, celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
*This is an edited biography. For full bio, please go to the below website and/or conduct your own further research.
