Search of Identity in Sally Morgan’s A Black Grandmother

A.Anu

Post Graduate Scholar

Department of English

St. Xavier’s College, Palayamkottai

Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli

anunincy05@gmail.com

Sally Morgan was born in Perth, Western Australia, on January 18, 1951. She is an

Australian Aboriginal author. She is also a dramatist and an artist. She was raised by her

mother and grandmother. During her childhood, she was questioned by other students about

her family background. Her mother told her that she was an Indian. However, when Sally

Morgan was fifteen, she learnt that she was of Aboriginal descent, from the Bailgu people of

the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She studied at the Australian Institute of Technology

and the University of Western Australia. She is known for her autobiography or memoir, but

she is also considered one of the most significant authors of children's literature in Aboriginal

Australian literature, and she is also a renowned painter and playwright.

Sally Morgan’s work is on display in numerous private and public collections all

around the world. Morgan is the director at the Centre for Indigenous History and the Arts at

the University of Western Australia. Sally’s widely-acclaimed first book, My Place, has sold

over half a million copies in Australia. Sally Morgan’s second book, Wanamurraganya, was

a biography of her grandfather. She has received several awards: ’My Place’ won the Human

Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission humanitarian award in 1987, the Western

Australia Week literary award for non-fiction in 1988, and the Order of Australia book prize
in 1990. In 1993, international art historians selected Morgan’s print ‘outback’ as one of

thirty paintings and sculptures for reproduction on a stamp, celebrating the universal

declaration of Human Rights. ” A Black Grandmother “is chapter fifteen of her

autobiography, My Place. It describes her gradual discovery of her Aboriginal origins. In this

chapter, the author becomes aware of her grandmother’s Aboriginality. Therefore, she asks

questions about her ethnic identity.

According to Lacan, in his paper titled Mirror Stage (1949), he explains his mirror stage

theory, in which he talks about the child’s development from age six to eighteen months and

during this particular period the distinction between the self and the other as it encounters its

image in the mirror. Before this, the child is from birth in the real stage, driven by needs, and

lived in unity with the mother. With the Mirror Stage, the child attains the first realisation of

its bodily autonomy. Thus begins the lifelong process of identifying the self in terms of the

other man or woman, West or East, and so on.

In this work the authors mother says that they are belong to country India who are living in

Australia but originally they are boong belongs to aboriginal community. Sally did not know

the truth and her identity as an Indian. At the age of fifteen sally came to know about her true

aboriginal identity. ” Boongs, we’re Boongs!’ I could see Jill was unhappy with the idea. It

took a few minutes before I summoned up enough courage to say, ’what’s a boong?’.’a

Boong. You know, Aboriginal. God, of all things, we’re Aboriginal!” (12). After finding

about her true identity she was scared to face the reality and the society. ” Oh. I suddenly

understand. There was a great deal of social stigma attached to being Aboriginal at our

school." This is how she finds her real identity, like Lacan’s mirror stage theory.

Even after finding the reality, she was in a great dilemma about whether to accept the

situation or not. She did not know anything about the aboriginal culture, history, or tradition.
"Accept it? Can you tell me one good thing about being an Abo? Well, I don't know much

about them." (13) Being an indigenous people of that land, those people were not happy

about revealing their true identity. “It’s a terrible thing to be Aboriginal. Nobody wants to

know you, not just Susan. You can be Indian, Dutch, Italian, anything, but not Aboriginal!”.

(13) These lines show how the native people lived in their own land, hiding their own identity

and living as outsiders. It also shows that these people are happy to accept an outsider but not

the aboriginal people. Sally is even scared to go to school and face her friends, and also many

parents thought that being friends with an aboriginal child would give their children bad

influences. "God, I don't know. All I know is none of my friends like them." (13) "Her

mother said she doesn't want her mixing with you because you're a bad influence. She

reckons all Abos are bad influence."(13)

Even in George Ryga’s work The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, we can see the protagonist, Rita

Joe; she is from a reservation where indigenous people live. After a certain age, she leaves

her reservation where she was safe and goes to the city to live a happy and comfortable life,

but there she faces the reality of society. “When I was a kid, there was leaves an’ a river…”

After coming to the city, she learnt about her real indigenous identity and how other people

treat them. When she reached the city, she was accused of multiple crimes, which she did not

do, and later she was put in prison. ” I had to spend last night in jail …Did you know?”.

When she was with her father on reservation, she lived in a protected and safe environment.

Here we can see Lacan's mirror stage theory, where the protagonist finds her true identity

after facing many struggles and suffering in the new place among new people. “I can’t leave

town. Every time I try, they put me in jail.”

When it comes to aboriginal people, they have suffered a lot in their own land because

of the people who do not belong to their land. or a very long time. In this autobiography,
Morgan reflects on her grandmother's experiences, capturing both the pain of living in a

society that marginalises Black individuals and the resilience that emerges from that struggle.

The grandmother's fear is rooted in a desire for safety and acceptance in a world that often

devalues her identity. “She lifted up her arm and thumped her clenched fist hard on the

kitchen table. ‘You bloody kids don’t want me, you want a bloody white grandmother, I’m

black. Do you hear, black, black, black!’ With that, Nan pushed back her chair and hurried

out to her room.” (11). These lines show about the psychological trauma of the grandmother.

After listening to the words of her grandmother, she was completely shocked, and for the first

time she realised about the colour of her grandmother that she is not white.”For the first time

in my fifteen years, I was conscious of Nan’s colouring. She was right, she wasn’t white.

Well, I thought logically, if she wasn’t white, then neither were we. What did that make me?

I had never thought of myself as being black before.” (11)

Sally Morgan shows her search for aboriginal identity throughout this work. Morgan’s

portrayal emphasises the generational impact of these fears, showcasing how they shape

family dynamics and self-perception. Through rich imagery and emotional depth, the work

ultimately scares her grandmother's strength while acknowledging the harsh realities of racial

discrimination.

Work cited:

Morgan, Sally. “A Black Grandmother.” A Textbook of Australian Literature, Angel

“Canadian, Australian and South Pacific Literature in English.” Aboriginal Australian Prose;
Sally Morgan: My Place – Canadian, Australian and South Pacific Literature in
English, ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/engp07/chapter/aboriginal-australian-prose-sally-
morgan-my-place/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2024.
“Canadian, Australian and South Pacific Literature in English.” Aboriginal Australian Prose;
Sally Morgan: My Place – Canadian, Australian and South Pacific Literature in
English, ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in/engp07/chapter/aboriginal-australian-prose-sally-
morgan-my-place/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2024.

Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Lacan’s Concept of Mirror Stage.” Literary Theory and Criticism, 18
Apr. 2021, literariness.org/2016/04/22/lacans-concept-of-mirror-stage/.

Ryga, George. The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Talonbooks.

Word’, Claire ’Word by. “My Place by Sally Morgan.” Word by Word, 31 Oct. 2021,
clairemcalpine.com/2021/10/31/my-place-by-sally-morgan/.