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Harold Thomas (artist)

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Australian artist and activist

Harold Joseph Thomas
BundooHarold Thomas with Jane Lomax-Smith in Adelaide commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Australian Aboriginal flag, 8 July 2001
Born1947 (age 76–77)
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Alma materSouth Australian School of Art
Notable workAustralian Aboriginal flag

Harold Joseph Thomas (born 1947), also known as Bundoo, is an Aboriginal Australian artist and former activist, known for designing and copyrighting the Australian Aboriginal flag. He claims to have designed the flag in 1971 as a symbol of the Aboriginal land rights movement, and in 1995 it was made an official "Flag of Australia". After this, his assertion of copyright over his design was upheld by the Federal Court, eventually transferring that copyright to the Commonwealth of Australia and making it freely available for public use in January 2022.

Early life and education

Harold Joseph Thomas (Bundoo) was born in 1947 to a Wombai father and Luritja mother in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. He was one of 13 children but the family did not all live under one roof as the children were taken from there at different stages. He remembers drawing and painting on pieces of paper from an early age.

At seven years old, he was removed from his family as part of the Stolen Generations and was taken to St Francis House, in South Australia, where he lived until he was eleven and began been foster in the home of the Reverend Donald Wallace and his family. He attended an Adelaide independent school, Pulteney Grammar.

In 1966, aged 17, Thomas won a scholarship to study at the South Australian School of Art, graduating with Honours in 1969, becoming the first Aboriginal person to graduate from an Australian art school. While there he studied watercolor painting under Reg Campbell who he remembered as being a eccentric teacher. In 1968 he held his first exhibition of watercolour paintings in Adelaide, which was opened by then premier Don Dunstan.

It was while he was studying that he became involved in the civil rights movement.

Art practice and career

In 1970 he was the first Aboriginal person to be employed at the South Australian Museum, working as a survey artist. This gave him access to a huge collection of Aboriginal artefacts as well as a wide range of art.

His main artistic influences include painters Caravaggio, Francisco Goya and Eugène Delacroix.

In 1972 he moved to Humpty Doo, nearby to Darwin, and started painting the landscape and wildlife, especially watercolours. He changed his subject matter and style dramatically in 2016, when he started painting representations of Aboriginal people's first and subsequent contact with European colonisers, including the frontier wars.

In 2016 his painting Tribal Abduction, a scene of an Aboriginal baby being torn from their mother's breast by police, depicting a scene relating to the Stolen Generations (of which he is a member,) won the top prize of A$50,000, the Telstra Art Award, in the 33rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAAs).

The Australian Aboriginal flag as designed by Harold Thomas.

Australian Aboriginal flag

Main article: Australian Aboriginal flag

Thomas says he designed the flag in 1970 to lead a demonstration at the NADOC (now NAIDOC) march. It was first flown at a land rights rally on 9 July 1971 in Adelaide, South Australia, as a symbol of the Aboriginal land rights movement. In 1972 it was adopted by the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra.

In 1991, he created a number of watercolour paintings for a set of limited prints to celebrate 20 years of the flag.

On 14 July 1995 the flag was made an official "Flag of Australia". In 1997 Thomas was involved in a high-profile case in the Federal Court and the High Court, to assert copyright over his design. The outcome was that he was declared the copyright owner of the flag's design, according to copyright law of Australia.

In 2010 Thomas was involved in a dispute with Google over its intended use of a 12-year-old Australian girl's artwork incorporating the Australian Aboriginal flag into its logo. Thomas refused to allow Google to use the image featuring the flag after negotiations over compensation failed. Thomas claimed that Google had opened negotiations with a request for free use of the flag and, while he allowed free use to non-commercial operations that gave health, educational, legal and other assistance to Aboriginal people, he charged a fee to commercial operations.

Thomas went on to give exclusive commercial rights to three companies, "one to reproduce flags, and the others to reproduce the image on objects and clothing". One of these companies, WAM Clothing, issued infringement notices to various organisations, including the AFL, NRL, and Aboriginal non-profits.

On 21 December 2021 Thomas created the authentic digital representation of the flag, minted as a non-fungible token (NFT) to commemorate the 50th year of the flag. On 25 January 2022, after three years of negotiation, Thomas assigned the copyright of the flag to the Commonwealth of Australia, in a deal that makes it free for public use by anybody. He said he hoped that the democratisation of the flag would "provide comfort to all Aboriginal people and Australians to use the flag". In February 2022 it was revealed that the Morrison government paid A$13.75m to Thomas to assume copyright. it also paid A$6.3m to two non-Indigenous businesses who held licences to use the flag.

Other work

In 1972 Thomas illustrated Tales told to Kabbarli: Aboriginal legends collected by Daisy Bates (stories collected by author Daisy Bates, retold by Barbara Ker Wilson). He also did the illustrations for Jagardoo: Poems from Aboriginal Australia (1977), by Jack Davis, and Kurkali the Lizard (1994), a children's picture book by Charlie Stream.

In 1973-4 he produced and directed a mythological play called Pelicans Dream.

In 1995 he was chair of the Northern Territory Stolen Generation Committee.

Recognition and awards

Personal life

Thomas has lived in Humpty Doo in Northern Territory, near Darwin, since the 1990s.

Selected exhibitions

References

  1. ^ Sexton, Maddy (17 September 2020). "The boys from St Francis: an interview with Harold Thomas". Wakefield Press. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Harold Thomas Aboriginal artist. Works in the Northern Territory Australia". Harold Thomas. 27 January 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  3. "The Artist". Harold Thomas. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  4. "Harold Thomas – Creator of the Aboriginal Flag". ABC. 25 March 2002. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  5. ^ "Who is Harold Thomas?". Australia: ABC News. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  6. Holderhead, Sheradyn (23 June 2013). "Search for Pulteney Grammar student Terry, subject of Jeffrey Smart painting". The Advertiser. Adelaide. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  7. ^ Cuthbertson, Debbie (5 August 2016). "Harold Thomas wins $50,000 Indigenous art award with stolen generations painting". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  8. ^ Harmon, Steph (6 August 2016). "The truth hurts – Harold Thomas wins award with Aboriginal art that is raw and real". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  9. "The man behind the iconic flag now free for all Australians: Who is Harold Thomas?". Australia: ABC News. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  10. Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards 2016.
  11. "Official Status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags". CRW Flags Inc. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  12. "Federal Court declares Aboriginal artist owner of copyright in Aboriginal flag" (PDF). Australian Copyright Council. May 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  13. Harold Joseph Thomas v David George Brown & James Morrison Vallely Tennant FCA 215 (9 April 1997) Accessed 14 July 2013.
  14. "Federal Court declares Aboriginal artist owner of copyright in Aboriginal flag" (PDF) (Press release). Australian Copyright Council. 9 April 1997. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2005. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  15. "The Work of the Court". Annual Report 1996-1997. Federal Court of Australia. Archived from the original on 28 March 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  16. Moses, Asher (26 January 2010). "Google Doodle For Australia Day Missing Aboriginal Flag". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  17. Higgins, Indigenous Affairs reporter Isabella (11 June 2019). "Football codes, Aboriginal designers told to stop using Aboriginal flag over copyright use". Australia: ABC News. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  18. ^ "Aboriginal flag quietly turns 50 amid last-minute date change and copyright dispute". The Guardian. 12 July 2021. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  19. Thomas, Harold (25 January 2022). "I created the Aboriginal flag as a symbol of unity and pride". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  20. "Free use of Aboriginal Flag secured for all Australians". Prime Minister of Australia. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  21. Allam, Lorena (18 February 2022). "Aboriginal flag 'colonised': senators in heated exchange over government's purchase of copyright". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  22. Ker Wilson, Barbara. & Bates, Daisy. & Thomas, Harold. 1972, Tales told to Kabbarli: Aboriginal legends collected by Daisy Bates. Retold by Barbara Ker Wilson. Illustrated by Harold Thomas Angus and Robertson Sydney
  23. "Harold Thomas". AustLit. 10 April 2019. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  24. Nicol, Emily (5 August 2016). "Harold Joseph Thomas (Bundoo) takes the 2016 Telstra Art Award". National Indigenous Television. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  25. "Rich artistic legacy of Aboriginal flag creator honoured with CDU doctorate | Charles Darwin University". cdu.edu.au. 20 September 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024.

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