Faith Thomas - Infinite Women

Born: 22 January 1933, Australia
Died: 15 April 2023
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Faith Coulthard, Tinnipha

This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Faith Thomas (née Coulthard) was the first of six Aboriginal nurses in South Australia to complete training in 1954, and was the first Aboriginal nurse in South Australia to become a public servant. She trained as a midwife at Queen Victoria Hospital in Adelaide, registering in 1957, and began working at Point McLeay Aboriginal Reserve (now Ralkon) in 1958. During this time Faith was well-known as a cricketer and played for the Australian Women’s Cricket Team. She has worked widely in the area of Aboriginal heath and community services and is a member of the Northern and Far Western Aboriginal Health Advisory Committee. Her philosophy of health recognises and acknowledges the skills of local healers who know the complexities of Aboriginal values, spirituality and culture.

IW note: In addition to being the first indigenous woman to play international cricket professionally in Australia, she was also the first Indigenous woman picked for any national sports team when she bowled for Australia in 1958. In 1960, she was eight months pregnant when she played her final professional cricket game in 1960.