Doris Pilkington Garimara

Doris Pilkington Garimara AM (1937-2014) was a Martu woman taken from her home at the age of four to be placed in the Moore River Native Settlement. She later used that experience to write of injustice and the strength of connection to country. Her profoundly Western Australian stories inspired a new generation of Indigenous writers, influencing the ways in which Western Australians view themselves through a complex history.

Published by the University of Queensland Press in 1996, Doris’s celebrated book, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, is the middle book of her trilogy. It follows the experience of her mother being taken away from her own family as a child, ten years before Doris was taken, in turn, from her. It was adapted into a highly successful film which earned Doris international recognition.

In highlighting the injustices faced by the Stolen Generations through truth-telling and the beauty of her language, Doris Pilkington was an outstanding leader and positive role model. Her legacy is one of cultural understanding and transformational knowledge through literature.

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