A Binjareb elder, Lorna Little spent her formative years at the Moore River Native Settlement. During World War II, Little's family moved back to their ancestral home in Pinjarra, Western Australia. It was there that she learnt the Nyoongar language and cultural stories of her people.
After a serious bout of rheumatic fever, Little was forced to leave school at the age of ten. With a limited education she was left with few employment options and subsequently undertook work as a domestic. But her lack of schooling was a source of embarrassment and at the age of seventeen she decided to pursue an education. Attending the 7th Day Adventist College in Perth, Little had to work in the kitchen to earn her keep at the school; beginning her days at four in the morning, she would light the stoves then study until it was time to begin preparing the breakfasts.
Little went on to successfully obtain her nursing requirements and work as a nurse's aide. In the early 1980s, she was involved in setting up the Aboriginal Bridging Course at WAIT (now Curtin University of Technology) where she eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Social Science. She has also worked with Rotary International to improve educational opportunities for Indigenous Australians. More recently she has been working on a team project to translate the bible into the Nyoongar language.
She has published her first children's book, The Mark of the Wagarl(2004), a traditional Nyoongar story which was passed onto Little by her cultural grandparents. The work, illustrated by the author's niece, Janice Lyndon, reinforces Little's inspiration to write as she states: 'I believe Aboriginal people die spiritually when their culture dies and I worry about our young people because many of them do not know their culture any more.'
