Sally Morgan's My Place plays an important role in Australian Aborginial literature because for

the first time it provides non-Aboriginal readers with knowledge of hidden indigenous history
(Newman 1992:73). The book, currently a literary classic, is used as a textbook at educational
institutions throughout Australia (Yagi 2007: 129). It has also become popular worldwide.
Althought the story is about Morgan's family life, it is also a "powerful political narrative" (Broun
1992: 25). Jody Broun says, "Underlying the story of Morgan's family history are the laws and
government policies of the past which have affected so strongly the lives and personalities of
the people in the book" (1992:25). Broun (1992: 25) also writes that there exist white Australians
who lack knowledge of the country's laws and past policies. To understand My Place fully, non-
Aborginial readers should know how white Australian history relates to native people and My
Place does just that.

Sally Morgan was born in 1951 in Manning, a suburb of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Western Australia.
She also gained postgraduate diplomas in both Counselling Psychology and Computing and
Library Studies. She is currently a professor of Indigenous Studies and the director of the
Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts at the School of Indigenous Studies, the University of
Western Australia. Sally Morgan published her first book, My Place, in 1987. It became a best-
seller and Fremantle Arts Centre Press reprinted it three times that year (Cameron 1994:35).
From the beginning, the book enjoyed wide success and its popularity has increased in the
years following. The book sold 110,000 copies in Australia in about a year and a half from
publication (Cameron 1994:36). By 1999 a total of more than 500,000 copies had been sold in
that country and abroad. The book brought the author the 1987 Human Rights and Equal
Opportunities Commission Award for Literature, the 1988 Braille Book of the Year Award and the
1989 Western Australian Citizen of the Year Award for Arts, Literature and Culture. Thus, Sally
Morgan has firmly established herself as a voice for indigenous people in the world. It is rare for
a new and unknown writer to achieve such stunning success. She was able to universalise her
personal family story and open up a window into previously hidden Australian history for non-
Aboriginal readers.

This view is supported by Adam Shoemaker who says, “My Place will in fact be a first taste of
indigenous writing for many who would otherwise not be exposed to it all－and who will be
encouraged to read further as a result” (1998: 343). Morgan’s success may also be due to the
fact that she was born and raised as a part-Aboriginal person in white society (Arimitsu 2003:
129). This success springs from the fact that she is a woman with a foot firmly planted in each
world. As such, she is in a better position than a non-Aboriginal to draw information from
full/part-Aboriginal people. Also, since her mother tongue is English she was able to relate her
story and the part-Aboriginal point of view in words and concepts that the general
Englishspeaking world could understand (Arimitsu 2003: 130).Sally Morgan says that she was
first motivated to write My Place, an account of her own family history, by her anger at the
injustice she perceived. In the book, she (MP 163−164) further clarifies her motivations. She
notes that Australian history concentrates on Caucasians and marginalises Aboriginal people.
Here, the author is concerned that Aboriginal history has been lost. At the time Morgan was
researching her book, government files about indigenous people were under the control of the
police and not open to the public. Patricia Crawford (Gare and Crawford 1987: 82) points out
that it is difficult to describe what happened to Aboriginal people in the past without access to
official records which are considered essential for historical writing. To overcome this difficulty,
Sally Morgan employed the oral history approach which, as Paula Hamilton (1999: 482) points
out, emerged during the 1960s and 1970s as an effective method to reveal the hidden life
history of oppressed people.

According to David Britton (13 June 1987: 48), Sally Morgan claims that contrary to her initial
emotional reaction, she did not allow her anger at the injustice her people experienced to distort
her account of the events related in My Place. She also states that she consciously tried to
eliminate personal feelings of bitterness and revenge as much as possible to keep her account
both objective and Britton (13 June 1987: 48) and Crawford (Gare and Crawford 1987: 83)
agree that the author succeeds in limiting acrimonious emotions in her story. The book
highlights a number of humorous, everyday episodes (Brett 1987: 9) which help counteract any
inclination towards bitterness. The story is peppered with very human anecdotes as when
Sally’s grandmother washes her family’s clothes while smoking and accidentally burns holes in
them with her cigarettes. The sometimes tragic history of her people is lightened by happy
events along the way such as the account of Sally’s wedding and her mother’s success in the
flower business. Furthermore, characters in the book have their own ways of dealing with
unhappiness (Macleod 5 July 1987: 34). For example, Sally’s mother has her own philosophy
which is to “laugh over difficult situations” (MP 32). Thus, My Place balances hardship with an
upbeat and positive outlook on life. My Place brought Sally Morgan success as a writer.
Ironically, however, the success had a discouraging influence on her writing7) because it
deprived her of privacy and put pressure on her to meet readers’ expectations (Macleod 5 July
1987: 36). Sally Morgan looked towards art as an other way of expressing herself, and
developed an interest in painting, saying, “Painting is less intellectual, more intuitive. I’m a bit
sick of words. Painting seems to draw less attention [than writing]” (Macleod 5 July 1987: 37).
She has now achieved success both as a writer and an artist. Her works are displayed in major
Australian galleries such as the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra and the National
Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

Newman, J. (1992). “Race, Gender and Identity: My Place as Autobiography.” Whose Place? Edited by D.
Bird and D. Haskell. Pymble NSW: Angus & Robertson 66−74.

Yagi, Y. (2007). “Sally Morgan ‘My Place’ ni kansuru Ichikosatsu [A Consideration on My Place
by Sally Morgan].” Kobe University of Fashion and Design, Kobe College of Liberal Arts
Researches 31. Hyogo: Kobe University of Fashion and Design 127−133.

Broun, J. (1992). “Unmaking White Myths: Your Laws, My Place.” Whose Place? Edited by D. Bird and
D. Haskell. Pymble NSW: Angus & Robertson 23−31.

Cameron, L. (1994). “My Place.” Aboriginal Experience: 2 UG Topic Area. Glebe: Pascal Press 35−55.
Arimitsu, Y. (2003). Osutoraria no Aidentiti [Australian Identity]. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.

Hamilton, P, (1999). “Oral History.” The Oxford Companion to Australian History. (2nd ed.). Edited
by G. Davison, J. Hirst and S. Macintyre. Melbourne: Oxford University Press 481−483.

Britton, D. (13 June 1987). “Unravelling a Painful Past－without Bitterness.” Rev. of My Place by
Sally Morgan. The West Australian 48.

Brett, J. (1987). “Breaking the Silence.” Rev. of My Place by Sally Morgan. Australian Book Review
August. 9−11

Macleod, M. (5 July 1987). “When an Unfortunate Life is a Real Blessing.” Rev. of My Place by Sally
Morgan. Times on Sunday 34.