Rover Thomas Wangkajunga/Kukatja language group, circa 1926-1998
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Rainbow Dreaming, 1985 -
Bungullgi, 1989
Rover Thomas was born at Yalta, a soak near Kunawarritji (Well 33) on the Canning Stock Route. He is the brother of Nyuju Stumpy Brown, and of Clifford Brooks’s father and Miyapu Mary Meribida’s mother.
His adult life was spent in the Kimberley, where he worked first as a stockman and later as an artist. In 1995 Rover returned to his desert Country one last time, travelling back to Kunawarritji and to Yalta, his birthplace and the burial place of his parents.
Kim Akerman, Roads Cross: The Paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994
Belinda Carrigan, ROVER THOMAS I want to paint, Heytesbury Pty Ltd, East Perth, Western Australia, 2003
Vanessa Merlino, 60 over 50: 60 Paintings from 50 Years of Australian First Nations Art, UOVO, New York, May 2023, p. 14 - 15 (illus.)