AM
- Born
- 1951
Perth, Western Australia - Occupation
- Aboriginal Artist and Aboriginal Writer
Summary
Sally Morgan is a renowned Aboriginal artist and author of the award-winning My Place.
Morgan, Sally (1951 - )
Details
Sally Morgan was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Australia in 1974, followed by postgraduate diplomas in counselling, computing and librarianship at the Curtin Institute of Technology in Perth. Curious about her background, she began investigating her family's history, and discovered she had relatives at the Corunna Downs station in Western Australia's Pilbara district.
In 1987 Morgan became a national celebrity with the release of her autobiography, My Place, which charts her discovery of her Aboriginality and outlines her family history. The book won the inaugural Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission humanitarian award in 1987 and the Western Australia Week literary award for non-fiction in 1988. She subsequently published several books.
Sally Morgan is also a nationally recognised artist, and has held numerous exhibitions. Her paintings can be found in major collections including the Robert Holmes a Court collection, the Dobell Foundation and the Australian National Gallery. She was awarded a Medal of Australia in 1990.
Sources used to compile this entry: Horton, David (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Vol. 2, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1994, p. 717.
Archival resources
Published resources
Books
- Morgan, Sally, My Place, Australian Large Print, Melbourne, 1987, 547 pp. Details
Online Resources
- 'Morgan, Sally (1951-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-650052. Details
See also
- Horton, David (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, society and culture, Aboriginal Studies Press for AIATSIS, Canberra, 1994, 2 v. (xxxiii, 1340 p.) pp. Details
Leonarda Kovacic and Barbara Lemon
Created: 20 May 2005, Last modified: 24 March 2006
This women is amazing. She has many awards and did you know that she did not know that she was aboriginal until she was 15 years old. I am doing a biography on her. She is an inspiration to everyone
Someone - 9 June 2010, 5:00 PM EST
I am pleased Someone thinks Sally Morgan is amazing. I disagree, as a semi-traditional Aboriginal woman my criticism is reserved for people with Indigenous ancestry who grew up with a white Australian
mind-set, came out as Indigenous when it was advantageous to do so and subsequently posed as experts on all things Indigenous. One has to 'live' a culture to understand how it works and how it makes sense of the world. You can't change your
world-view like you change your underwear. People who've been conditioned by Western logic will probably use that logic to understand other cultures.
I believe there are exceptions to the rule but they're not the ones who have visited the country of their ancestors once or twice to establish their credentials and then gone back to their white middle-class lives.
May - 6 July 2010, 6:03 PM EST
Is she is an inspiration to everyone? In what way? As a writer? I am inspired by women that use their status to contribute and make changes to the wider Aboriginal community, for example, Jackie Huggins, Marcia Langton, Linda Burney, Kerry Arabena, Alison Anderson and many more.
May - 15 July 2010, 1:58 PM EST
i feel proud that am doing my research paper on her. My Place is so touching and thought provoking. Its truly creditable that she voices for her community and much more creditable is that her voice is being heard world-wide. its hightime ppl around the world realise and value the world's most ancient aboriginal culture
sri vidhya - 12 December 2011, 2:13 AM EST