Doris Thomas

Doris Thomas was born Arlyetilhe, and grew up at Deep Well Station (Allumba Atunta) south of Alice Springs, and her Tjukurrpa is Pigeon Rockhole in James Range on Deep Well Station. Her mother, Ngwi Ngwi was a Luritja woman from Kaltukatjara [Docker River] way, and her father, Namu called Tommy Shadrach was from Papunya, long before it was made a government reserve in 1960. Her parents both worked at Deep Well Station. Thomas’ whole family then moved to the burgeoning excision on Maryvale Station around Frances Well, that eventually became the Titjikala Community. Her father, Old Tommy, was in charge of camels and donkeys, transporting people and goods between the railway siding, the cattle station and the emerging Aboriginal community. Thomas travelled to Darwin to study and met her husband, with whom she had two children. She is also a grandmother. Working through Tapatjatjaka Art Centre at Titjikala, Thomas has experience using many media – fabric painting, carving, pottery and painting. She has also painted with Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre, having a solo exhibition at that time. Eventually, living permanently in Alice Springs as a renal patient, Thomas joined Tangentyere Artists in 2010. Thomas paints rich landscapes of the Country in which she has lived her life, around Deep Well and Titjikala. More recently, Doris produced intricate paintings that depict in acute detail her memories, past and present, and that feature places like Alice Wells, Mount Charlotte and Titjikala. She also paints the part of Iterrkewarre Tjukurrpa relating to James Range on Deep Well Station, the place of her birth.

In 2019 Doris was shortlisted for the Vincent Lingiari Art Prize, and exhibited a suite of work in Tarnanthi at Art Gallery South Australia. In 2020 Doris Thomas was a finalist in the Alice Prize. In 2020 and 2022, Doris was shortlisted for the Sir John Sulman Art Award at Art Gallery of NSW.

In 2021, Doris Thomas received a Copyright Agency Cultural Fund grant, with which she worked with an animator and sound designer to animate her Eagle Story. This was exhibited at Adelaide’s Migration Museum as part of Tarnanthi.