Doris Pilkington 's traditional name is Nugi Garimara. She was born in 1937 on Balfour Downs Station in the East Pilbara, homeland of her Mardu ancestors. As a toddler she was removed by authorities from her home at the station, along with her mother Molly Craig and baby sister Anna, and committed to Moore River Native Settlement. This was the same institution Molly had escaped from ten years previously, the account of which is told in Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence. At eighteen, Doris left the mission system as the first of its members to qualify for the Royal Perth Hospital's nursing aide training program. Following marriage and a family, she studied journalism and worked in film/video production. Her first book Caprice: A Stockman's Daughter won the 1990 David Unaipon Award. Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence was first published in 1996, and was released internationally in 2002 as the film Rabbit-proof Fence .

Under the Wintamarra Tree was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for Nonfiction. Doris Pilkington Garimara died in 2014.