Mother and Child

Limited edition no. 30/95.

Framed size: 845 x 700 mm.

Born in Perth in 1951, Sally was raised by her mother and grandmother to believe that she was Indian, to deflect questions about her non-European appearance. She was fifteen when she learnt that she and her sister were in fact of Aboriginal descent, from the Palku people of the Pilbara.

She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Western Australia in 1974. She also has post-graduate diplomas from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University of Technology) in Counselling Psychology and Computing and Library Studies.

Her first book, the autobiographical My Place (1987), was an instant success in Australia, and was also published in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. She has since written another biography, and five children's books.

Her first play, Sistergirl, debuted at the Festival of Perth in 1992, and later toured throughout Australia. Sistergirl was followed by Flying Emu: Shark Island Stories.

Her art appears in collections both public and private throughout Australia and the United States. She is currently Director of the Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts at The University of Western Australia.