Sally Morgan (artist)

Sally Morgan ( born January 18, 1951 in Perth, Western Australia ) is one of Australia's best known Aboriginal artists and writers.

Life

Sally Morgan was born in 1951 in Perth as the oldest of five children. For a long time she believed that her family was from India, however, came at the age of 15 years that they had ancestors of Palku from the Pilbara region. This discovery of its hidden roots and the subsequent search for her identity was the trigger for her first book, My Place, which was released in 1987. In it she tells the story of her self-discovery through contact with their Aboriginal culture and history. In Australia, more than half a million copies were sold. The book was also published in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Her second book Wanamurraganya was published in 1989. This is the biography of her grandfather, Jack McPhee. In addition, she has published five children's books.

Besides her work as a writer Sally Morgan has developed international recognition as an artist. Her works are exhibited in many private and public collections in Australia and the United States, including the Australian National Gallery.

Sally Morgan has won many prizes and awards. As part of the celebrations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1993, its pressure Outback was selected as one of thirty paintings and sculptures by international art historians to represent on a postage stamp a product of the declaration.

Nevertheless, My Place remains her most influential work, not only because of its great popularity, but also because other authors - has given a new role model - especially those with indigenous roots.

Today, Sally Morgan is Director of the Centre for Indigenous History and Arts at the University of Western Australia.

Literary work

• My Place, 1987
• Wanamurraganya 1989