Sally Morgan

Sally Jane Morgan (née Milroy; born 1951) is an Australian Aboriginal author, dramatist, and artist. Her works are on display in numerous private and public collections in Australia and around the world.

Early life, education, and personal life Morgan was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1951 as the eldest of five children. She was raised by her mother Gladys and her maternal grandmother Daisy. Her mother, a member of the Bailgu people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, grew up in the Parkerville Children's Home as part of the Stolen Generations. Her father, William, a plumber by trade, died after a long-term battle with post-war experience post-traumatic stress disorder. Of her siblings, Jill Milroy is an academic, Helen Milroy is a child psychiatrist who was the first indigenous Australian to become a medical doctor, David is a playwright, and William has worked as a senior public servant.

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 that 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. When she was 15, she learned that she and her siblings were actually of Aboriginal descent.

After finishing school, she worked as a clerk in a government department, had a period of unemployment, then obtained a job as a laboratory assistant.

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.

Awards 1987 – Human Rights Literature and Other Writing Award for My Place 1989 – Human Rights Literature and Other Writing Award for Wanamurraganya, the story of Jack McPhee 1989 – Winner, FAW Patricia Weickhardt Award to an Aboriginal Writer 1990 – Winner, Order of Australia Book Prize 1993 – Joint winner Fremantle Print Award with Bevan Honey 1998 – Notable Book, Children's Book Council of Australia 2012 – Notable Book, Children's Book Council of Australia 2022 – Co-Winner Picture fiction, Environment Award for Children's Literature

In 2023 The West Australian newspaper identified the 100 people who had shaped the state of Western Australia and they included senator Jo Vallentine, politician and businessperson Carmen Lawrence, health activist Fiona Stanley, politician Bessie Rischbieth, Dr Roberta Jull, women's leader Amy Jane Best and Morgan.