Sally Morgan (artist)

Sally Jane Morgan (born 1951 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Aboriginal Australian author, playwright, and visual artist. She was the eldest of five children, raised by her mother Gladys and grandmother Daisy. Her mother, a member of the Bailgu people from the Pilbara region, was part of the Stolen Generations and grew up in the Parkerville Children's Home. Her father William, a plumber, died after a long struggle with post-war PTSD. Among her siblings, Jill Milroy is an academic, Helen Milroy became the first Indigenous Australian medical doctor, David is a playwright, and William worked as a senior public servant.

As a child, Morgan noticed she looked different from her classmates and was often asked about her background. Her mother told her she was of Indian-Bangladeshi descent, and Morgan believed her ancestors came from the Indian subcontinent. At age 15, she discovered she and her siblings were actually Aboriginal. After school, she worked as a government clerk, was unemployed for a time, then became a laboratory assistant. She later earned a BA in psychology from the University of Western Australia in 1974, followed by postgraduate diplomas in counselling psychology, computing, and library studies from the Western Australian Institute of Technology. She married Paul Morgan, a teacher she met at university, in 1972; they later divorced. They have three children—Ambelin, Blaze, and Ezekiel Kwaymullina—all of whom have co-authored works with her.

Morgan’s 1987 book *My Place* tells the story of discovering her family’s past. It sold over half a million copies in Australia and was published in Europe, Asia, and the United States, revealing a history of children taken from their mothers, slavery, abuse, and fear tied to skin colour. Her second book, *Wanamurraganya*, is a biography of her grandfather. She also collaborated with illustrator Bronwyn Bancroft on children’s books, including *Dan’s Grandpa* (1996). Morgan directs the Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts at the University of Western Australia. *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 her print *Outback* as one of 30 works reproduced on a stamp celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Her awards include the 1987 Human Rights Literature and Other Writing Award for *My Place*, the 1989 Human Rights Literature and Other Writing Award for *Wanamurraganya*, the 1989 FAW Patricia Weickhardt Award to an Aboriginal Writer, the 1990 Order of Australia Book Prize, the 1993 joint Fremantle Print Award with Bevan Honey, and Notable Book citations from the Children’s Book Council of Australia in 1998 and 2012. In 2022, she was co-winner of the Picture Fiction category of the Environment Award for Children’s Literature. In 2023, *The West Australian* newspaper listed her among 100 people who shaped the state, alongside figures such as Jo Vallentine, Carmen Lawrence, and Fiona Stanley.

Her art is held in collections including the Robert Holmes à Court collection, the Dobell Foundation, the Australian National Gallery, and the Muscarelle Museum of Art.