Doris Pilkington Garimara was born on Balfour Downs Station in the East Pilbara. As a toddler she was removed by authorities from her home at the station, together with her mother Molly Craig and her baby sister, Annabelle. They were sent to Moore River Native Settlement. Molly Craig walked back to Jigalong but was only able to carry baby Annabelle, leaving Doris at the Settlement. At eighteen, Doris left the mission system as the first of its members to qualify as a nursing aide at the Royal Perth Hospital. Ater marrying and raising a family, she studied journalism and worked in film and television production. In 2002 she was appointed Co-Patron of State and Federal Sorry Day Committee's Journey of Healing.

Doris Pilkington Garimara's story was recorded by the National Library of Australia for the Bringing Them Home oral history project and appeared in the associated publication Many Voices: Reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation, edited by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich (2002).