Thomas was the first Aboriginal woman to compete for Australia in sports. In 2019, a long career in nursing was recognized with the Order of Australia.
Aunty Faith Thomas, the very first Aboriginal woman who played Test cricket for Australia, died over the weekend at the age of 90, and Australian sport is in grief. When Thomas (née Coulthard) played her debut Test for Australia against England at Melbourne’s Junction Oval in February 1958, she became the country’s first Indigenous woman to do so.
In 2019, Thomas was awarded the Order of Australia for her achievements in cricket as well as her long nursing career serving Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginals communities. Thomas, the 48th Australian woman who played Test cricket, is remembered each year by the Adelaide Strikers, who compete for the Faith Thomas Trophy in the Women’s Big Bash League. Her legacy continues on as an excellent of the game in Adelaide Oval’s Avenue of Honour.
Faith Thomas made a remarkable and revolutionary contribution to cricket and the community, said Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley. “As Australia’s first Aboriginal woman to play Test cricket, Faith set a precedent for those who came after her, and she left a lasting impression on the game.”
Thomas Tinnipha, the daughter of an Adnyamathanha mother and a German father, was born in Nepabunna in 1933. Faith Coulthard was transported to Colebrook Home in Quorn, South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, by her mother, on dirt roads where she started playing improvised cricket with a homemade bat and a rock if there were no balls.
Thomas, a fast bowler, quipped that her terrible pace was the consequence of “chucking stones at galahs,” but she didn’t realize women played structured cricket until she was in her late teens. An Adelaide club invited Thomas to play a game, She became an instant sensation because of the power she created from only a few feet of run-up. In her debut season with Windsor, she struck a hat trick and 6/20, and in one memorable match against Adelaide Teachers College, she had six wickets for no runs.
Thomas was selected to represent South Australia and later to play in a warmup game against the touring English side in Brisbane after only 3 club matches. A legend was born there. To dismiss English captain, Mary Duggan, Thomas bowled a delivery so fast that the middle stump was thrown cartwheeling, and Duggan sat on the ground giggling at her powerlessness against the pace.
Thomas made her Test debut In the year 1958. She was bowled sparingly in Melbourne after the Sydney Test was washed off. Her career ended peacefully when she carried the drinks in Adelaide. Thomas, a desert lady who disliked traveling at sea, denied the foreign trip despite being picked to visit England and New Zealand.
Rather, she went to the docks to say farewell to the crew and chose to become a nurse. As a child at Colebrook, Thomas was impacted by two nice adults she called Sister Hyde and Sister Rutter. “I have no idea how those two women didn’t go insane attempting to look after all those small blackfellas,” she reflected afterward. “I used to believe that things just happened or were simply coincidences, but now when I look back, I’ve witnessed many miracles.”
Because the only word forbidden at Colebrook was “can’t,” Thomas thought her remarkable existence was possible.
