Thomas Tjapaltjarri was born around 1964 in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia, and grew up living a completely traditional life on his Country.

In 1984 he was one of a group of nine who walked out of the desert and met the wider Australian world for the first time. Dubbed “the last nomads” in the press and now known as the Pintupi Nine, the family made national headlines. They are reported to have come in partly to find wives for Thomas and his brothers, Warlimpirrnga and Walala.

Of the nine, Thomas is perhaps the one in whom the nomadic spirit remains strongest.

Encouraged by his brother Warlimpirrnga, Thomas began painting for Papunya Tula Artists around three years after the family came out of the desert. Now an established artist, he paints in a style related to his brothers’.

His paintings tell the stories of the Tingari Cycle, an important body of Law describing the journeys of the Tingari Ancestors across the land in the Tjukurrpa (Dreaming), conveyed through his skilful brushwork.