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".
She was 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. 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 sister, Annabelle, was also taken when she was 3 years old, but has not acknowledged Craig or Pilkington since she was abducted.
Doris Pilkington Garimara died of ovarian cancer at age 76 on 10 April 2014 in Perth, Western Australia.
