Sally Scales

Scales is the daughter of Josephine Mick, cultural leader and senior artist at Ninuku Arts, and the late Ushma Scales, leather maker and one of the co-founders of Maruku Arts and the APY Ara Irititja cultural archive.[1][2] Her grandmother was also a painter.[2]

Scales is the youngest person and second woman to serve as the position of President of APY and is also a spokeswoman for Coletivo APY Art Center, an indigenously owned cultural enterprise group,[3] with whom she has worked since 2013.[3][4] As well as working with the collective, she undertakes consultancy work for the Art Gallery of South Australia.[4]

Scales is part of the Uluru Declaration Reform Youth Leadership Team, having participated in the Referendum Council regional Constitution dialogues in Ross River, Adelaide and the national convention in Uluru in 2017. Since then, she has been involved with the leadership of Voice, Treaty and Truth.[4]

Scales focused on her artistic practice in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[5][6] She had her first exhibition at APY Gallery Adelaide in March 2021, which sold out.[1]

Scales has received various awards and was named a finalist in the 2022 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA).[2]

In 2022, she was appointed to join the group working with the Australian federal government in preparation of a referendum known as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a proposed Australian federal advisory body to represent the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.[3] That year, she was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Women, nominated by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who noted that Scales "created wonderful art and broad human understanding. By illuminating and inspiring others, she catalyzes the many changes needed to end the pernicious combination of racism and sexism."[3]

Sally Scales is the adoptive mother of a son named Walter.[4]