Sally Morgan, Taken Away

Biography:

Sally Morgan was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1951 and is a full-time painter and writer.

For many years, Morgan held a strong desire to express her thoughts via painting and writing.  However, she was no encouraged during her schooling and indeed, it was not until she researched her family history and discovered her Aboriginal identity – the Palku and Nyamal people of the Pilbara - that she found meaning in her images and gained enough confidence to commence he professional practice as an artist.  Additionally, her ‘hidden origins’ and subsequent quest for an identity provided the impetus for her 1987 autobiography, My Place. [1]

Morgan completed a BA at the University of Western Australia in 1974 majoring in Psychology.  She also progressed on to obtaining post-graduate diplomas from the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) in both Counselling Psychology and Library Studies.

Artwork:

“Taken Away” is part of The Bicentennial Folio: Prints by Twenty-Five Australian Artists, 1987.  The subject matter is presented from a woman’s perspective and illustrates two important things that Aboriginal women have lost since colonisation in 1788, their land and their children.

The University of Canberra Collection holds seven works in total by Sally Morgan.

Bibliography

Morgan, Sally, The Art of Sally Morgan, Viking, 1996

Morgan, Sally, My Place, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1987