Doris Pilkington Garimara

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Doris Pilkington Garimara

Born Nugi Garimara
1937
Jigalong, Western Australia
Occupation Indigenous Australian writer and nurse

Doris Pilkington Garimara AM (born Nugi Garimara in 1937, and also known as Doris Pilkington) is an Australian author. She is best known for her 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, a story of three Aboriginal girls, among them Pilkington's mother Molly Craig, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia and travelled for nine weeks to return to their family. It is considered a powerful example of the mistreatments endured by the Stolen Generation. Her follow-up book, Under the Wintamarra Tree, details her own escape from Moore River. In the three books, Caprice, a Stockman's Daughter, Follow the Rabbit-proof Fence and Under the Wintamarra Tree Pilkington was to document three generations of women in her family.[1]

Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence was made into an internationally successful film in 2002, directed by Phillip Noyce.

Pilkington was born in the north Western Australian settlement of Jigalong. She was taken from her mother to be raised at the Moore River mission when she was three and a half years old.[2] Her sister, Annabelle, was also taken when she was 3 years old, but has not acknowledged Craig or Pilkington since she was abducted.[3]

In 1990 Pilkington's book Caprice: A Stockman's Daughter the first of the trilogy, won the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Unpublished Indigenous Writer - The David Unaipon Award.

Pilkington was appointed co-patron of Australia’s State and Federal Sorry Day committee’s Journey of Healing in 2002

In May 2008 she was awarded the $50,000 Red Ochre Award which is made to an indigenous artist for their outstanding, life-long contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts at home and abroad. [4]

Contents

[edit] Bibliography

  • Caprice, A Stockman's Daughter, (UQP, 1991)
  • Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, (UQP, 2002)
  • Under the Wintamarra Tree, (UQP, 2002)
  • Home to Mother, (UQP, 2006) illustrated by Janice Lyndon

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Profile: Doris Pilkington. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
  2. ^ Pilkington, Doris ). Australian Women Biographical entry. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
  3. ^ Daughter dies with her story still incomplete. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
  4. ^ Pot of gold at the end of the Rabbit-Proof Fence for Doris Pilkington Garimara AM. Australia Council. Retrieved on 2008-05-29.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Pilkington Garimara, Doris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nugi Garimara (name at birth), Doris Pilkington
SHORT DESCRIPTION Indigenous Australian author
DATE OF BIRTH 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Jigalong, Western Australia, Australian
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages