Jarntu Rover Thomas
Born about 1926, died 1998.
Kukatja, Wangkajunga language groups, Joolama skin group
Warmun (Turkey Creek) and Kununurra communities
Rover was born at Yalta, a soak near Kunawarritji (well 33) on the Canning Stock Route. He is the brother of Nyuju Stumpy Brown, and of Clifford Brook’s father and Mary Meribida’s mother. Rover lived his adult life in the Kimberley, working first as a stockman and later as an artist. In 1995, he returned to his desert Country one last time: travelling back to Kunawarritji and to Yalta, his birthplace and the burial place of his parents.
Canning Stock Route
1989, by Rover Thomas
ochre and natural binders on canvas, 106 x 61cm
Holmes a Court Collection
The spiral form in this painting is a waterhole on the Canning Stock Route where cattle stopped to drink on their way south to Wiluna. It is possibly Kunawarritji (Well 33), where the young Rover was picked up by drovers in the 1940s.
