Cricket mourns Aunty Faith Thomas, first Indigenous woman to play Test for Australia

Australian cricket is mourning the death of Aunty Faith Thomas, the first Aboriginal woman to play Test cricket for Australia, who passed away at the weekend aged 90. Thomas (nee Coulthard) played her groundbreaking Test for Australia against England at Melbourne’s Junction Oval in February 1958, when she became the first Indigenous woman to represent an Australian sports team.

Thomas was awarded the Order of Australia in 2019 for her services to cricket and her dedication to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in a long nursing career. Retrospectively awarded a baggy green cap as the 48th Australian woman to play Test cricket, Thomas is honoured every year by the Adelaide Strikers playing for the Faith Thomas Trophy in the WBBL. Her legacy also lives on in Adelaide Oval’s Avenue of Honour as a great of the game.

“Faith Thomas made a wonderful and groundbreaking contribution to cricket and the community,” Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said. “As the first Aboriginal woman to represent Australia in Test cricket, Faith was an inspiration to those who have followed and she leaves an indelible mark on the game.”Born in 1933 in Nepabunna, Thomas was born Tinnipha, the daughter of an Adnyamathanha mother and German father. As Faith Coulthard, she was brought by her mother to Colebrook Home in Quorn in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges where she began playing improvised cricket on dirt roads using a homemade bat and a rock if there was no ball.

A fast bowler, Thomas joked that her fearsome speed was the result of “chucking stones at galahs”, but only in her late teens did she learn women played organised cricket. Thomas was invited to participate in a club game in Adelaide and the power she