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  Sally Morgan: claims of fabrication March 21, 2004 Reporter : Helen Dalley Producer : Christopher Zinn  In a special investigation, Helen Dalley reports on the controversy surrounding the Australian bestseller My Place by Sally Morgan and allegations by the white family at the centre of the book that it's based on fabrications and a distorted and twisted version of events.The Drake-Brockman family dispute Aboriginal author Sally Morgan's account, which tells of their ancestors' alleged harsh treatment and abuse of Aborigines, including Morgan's own grandmother Daisy, who worked for them in the early 1900s. Judith Drake-Brockman, now in her 80s, wants to expose the alleged fabrications written about her family and challenge the moral and factual certainty of My Place. The portrait of black exploitation at the hands of white masters is now an almost universally-accepted cornerstone of Aboriginal history. But the Drake-Brockmans claim that Sally Morgan has distorted and twisted their story in telling her story. Drake Brockman tells Sunday, "It is very sad what Sally Morgan did with that book and it makes me feel disgusted. Why would anyone want to make up yarns like that to pull someone down?" She denies Morgan's claims that her father Howden Drake-Brockman fathered Morgan's Aboriginal grandmother Daisy. Morgan also claims that Howden Drake-Brockman then committed incest with Daisy and produced a child, Gladys, who is Sally Morgan's mother. The Drake-Brockmans reject this claim of incest and are asking that Morgan's family take a DNA test to prove whether they are blood-related, to settle the paternity issue once and for all. According to Judith Drake-Brockman, Sally Morgan's book has created a deep rift between the two families, who had been friends for decades. "It hurts me to think she could write such absolute fabricated tripe about my family, of course it hurt." My Place is one of the most-successful Australian books ever published, selling more than 500,000 copies. It is currently on the Higher School Certificate syllabus in NSW and is studied in schools in other states. Sally Morgan, now a literary superstar, has said, "One of the things writers pride themselves on is being good observers of human nature. This means we can frequently be found poking our noses into other people's business..." The Drake-Brockmans say they now need to set the record straight.  Despite all the publicity surrounding the book, despite the public accolades, including the 1989 Achievement Award, Sally Morgan is silent now. When the Drake-Brockmans challenged Morgan's account, she refused to discuss it with them, publicly or privately. On several occasions, she declined Sunday's invitation to be part of Helen Dalley's report. In her response to Sunday, Sally Morgan said, "We respect the right of others to hold different views to ourselves, but my family does not wish to participate in the program."However, Sally Morgan has acknowledged that the Drake-Brockmans dispute her claims. In a newspaper interview in 1999, still on her publisher Fremantle Arts Centre's website, Morgan is quoted as saying, "Their view is that my book is just lies." As Helen Dalley's report demonstrates, in the controversial and chequered history of Australia's black-white relations, it's not always easy to pin down the truth. Click here to read a transcript of this story |
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