Madigan Thomas
1927 – 2011
- Region
- Kimberley
- Community
- Baluwa (Violet Valley)
- Language
- Gija (Kija, Gidja, Kitja)
Madigan Jowoodjil Thomas was born in 1927 at Baloowa, the Government-run Violet Valley Aboriginal Ration Station on her husband Sandy Thomas’ family Country, about 42 km south-west of Warmun. As a young woman she mustered cattle, fixed fences and did bore runs at Violet Valley and Mabel Downs, and spent time in the bush with the old people, learning the old and still important Gija ways.
In the 1970s, following the introduction of the Award Wage for white pastoral workers, the family moved to Wyndham, then back to Turkey Creek, by then Warrmarn (Warmun) Community. Her mother was Paddy Jaminji’s cousin, and her brother-in-law Rover Thomas was married to her sister Rita Dilmari. At the beginning of the 1980s she joined the first generation of Warmun painters, including Paddy, Rover, Jack Britten, Hector Jandanay and Queenie McKenzie.
She painted for Waringarri Arts, Warmun Traditional Arts, and later the Warmun Art Centre (set up in 1998 by her daughter Ethel McLennon). Across 23 years she created hundreds of unique paintings and prints, rarely painting a story more than once. Her work was an intimate corpus of knowledge about her own and her husband’s Countries and their Ngarranggarni (Dreamings). She is remembered as a quiet achiever and strong law and culture woman.
Exhibitions
- Madigan & Peter Thomas20 August – 10 September 2026
