Sally Morgan

By Ali Hallani and Angus Callinan

Who is Sally
Morgan?
• Sally Morgan is an accomplished Indigenous Australian author, dramatist and artist. She was
born on the 18th of January 1951 in Perth, and her childhood was the inspiration for her
bestselling book ‘My Place’, which has now sold over half a million copies in Australia.
• Raised in a family of 5 children by her mother and her grandmother, endearingly called
‘nan’. Once she discovered she was different from the other children, she continually
questioned her mother on the topic until she told her she was of Indian/Bangladeshi
descent.
• Sally has also released a series of children's picture books, including ‘Little Piggies’ and
‘Hurry up Oscar’
• When Sally graduated from university at the university of Western Australia she started
investigating her families history and discovered she had relatives in the Corunna Downs
station in the Pilbara, Western Australia.
• Some awards of hers include:
• 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
• 1990 – Winner, Order of Australia Book Prize
• 1993 – Joint winner Fremantle Print Award with Bevan Honey
• 1998 – Notable Book, Children's Book Council
• 2012 – Notable Book, Children's Book Council of Australia.
Personal Context
•
• Sally knew she had an interesting history. When she graduated from
university in 1974, Sally visited where her grandmother was born and this
turned into a journey to uncover her families roots and get a greater
understanding of who she was. She discovered lots about her family history
and uncovered a fascinating story of where she had come from. Sally then
decided to document this and ended up writing 'My Place' which is a
deeply moving biographical chronology discussing her child hood as she
grew up as an indigenous child in Perth during the 50's and 60’s.
• Sally’s Aboriginal heritage heavily influenced her future career, both artistic
and in writing.
•
Cultural Context
• My Place is the biographical chronology of the life of Sally Morgan, and her
discovery of her indigenous heritage. It starts off with Sally’s own life
experiences growing up in Perth in the 50’s and 60’s.
• The cultural context of ‘My Place’ is very important to understanding the
meaning and root behind the story.
• The cultural aspect behind Sally Morgan's’ writing was to enlighten people
on the upbringing of an indigenous girl but to also explain how she had an
exciting up bringing to a certain extent. We learn about her love and
connection to the wilderness, her love for animals, how important family
was to her and her family in contrast to the white families. We discover
how her rough up bringing turned her into the woman she is today as a
very successful author and artist.
Historical Context
• ‘My Place’ begins in Post-ww2 era Australia, when Australian citizens lived in ‘two
separate worlds’, with the majority of the population living in houses with
running water and power services, with law ensuring social order, where most
people had jobs and enough to eat, and even when they did not there were
measures put in place that helped them through these hard times.
• The other side of Australia belonged to the Indigenous Australians, the original
inhabitants of this land. They lived on the outer edge of non-indigenous society in
poverty, as a result of losing their lands. These indigenous people, for the most
part, did not receive the state/federal benefits that non-indigenous people
received, including the dole.
• In ‘My Place’, Sally and her family seemed to be in between these two worlds, as
they were always on the brink of poverty, but they still attended school, kept
many pets and always had food on the table. This could have been a contributing
factor to Sally and her siblings’ confusion about their race.
Sally Morgan’s purpose in writing ’My Place’
• Sally Morgan’s purpose in writing ‘My Place’ was to share her life
journey, the experiences that led her to where she is now and her
discovery of her aboriginal culture.

• We believe that her target audience was those who were uneducated
about the plight of Aboriginals, and those who wanted to be given a
voice.
Thanks for watching gamers