Harold Thomas

Harold Thomas ( * 1947 in Alice Springs, Australia) is an Australian painter of the tribe of Luritja. He designed in 1971, the official flag of the Aborigines.

Life

Thomas works as a watercolorist and acrylics. In 1992 he painted the official portraits of the parliament of the Northern Territory.

He grew up as one of 13 children in a variety of Aboriginal villages outside the settlements of whites. As a small child he first came to St. John's Hostel. At seven, he was sent to South Australia in the St. Francis House, an Anglican institution for Aboriginal boys. At twelve, he came into the family of an English priest. There he received his education.

After graduating from high school, Thomas won a place at the South Australian School of Art and then studied social anthropology at the University of Adelaide, graduating with a diploma.

In the 1960s, he competed at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide and was the first Aborigine, who was allowed to work in an Australian museum. In this museum, Thomas met with the largest collection of Aboriginal art. In the 1960/1970er years of international student movement and the growing self-awareness of blacks in the U.S. ( Black Power ) also strengthened the confidence of the Aborigines in Australia. Therefore, Thomas henceforth devoted specifically to the Aboriginal art.

Highlight its commitment to the culture of their own people and influenced by the Aboriginal land rights movement was his draft of the Aboriginal flag, whose copyright has been awarded to him in 1997, officially in 1971. This flag, for the first time at the National Aboriginal Day (12 July 1971) flown at Victoria Square in Adelaide, was finally officially recognized on 14 July 1995 by the Australian Government by the Governor General William Hayden. Increasingly, see also Non - Aboriginal in this flag the official national flag of Australia. The black bar represents the black natives of Australia ( Aborigines ) who live on the red earth of Australia (red bar below) and can be obtained from the yellow sun alive (yellow circle in the center ).

Awards

Collections and Exhibitions

Collections

Some of his works are in the inventory of

• Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth
• Flinders University Art Museum in Adelaide
• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin
• Northern Territory Chief Minister's Department in Darwin
• Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane

Exhibitions (selection)

In the following solo exhibitions Thomas presented his painting:

In addition, Thomas participated 1984-1993 several times at the National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition in the Gallery of the Northern Territory Museum and Art in Darwin.