Doris Pilkington

Doris Pilkington Garimara (born Nugi Garimara; c. 1 July 1937 – 10 April 2014), also known as Doris Pilkington, was an Australian author.

Garimara wrote Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1996), a story about the stolen generation, and based on three Aboriginal girls, among them Pilkington's mother, Molly Craig, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia and travelled 2,414 km (1,500 miles) for nine weeks to return to their family. Pilkington was born at Balfour Downs Station, near the north Western Australian settlement of Jigalong. Her mother, Molly, named her Nugi Garimara, but she was called Doris after Molly's employer at the station, Mary Dunnet, who thought Nugi was "a stupid name". As her birth was unregistered, her birth date was recorded as 1 July 1937 by the Department of Native Affairs. She was taken from her mother to be raised at the Moore River mission when she was three and a half years old. Her younger sister, Annabelle, was also taken and was told she was an orphan, and over the years distanced herself from her Aboriginal heritage. Doris was reunited with her mother 21 years later.