The Australian cricket community is mourning the loss of Faith Thomas, the first Aboriginal woman to play Test cricket for Australia, who passed away at the age of 90. Thomas (nee Coulthard) played her groundbreaking Test match for Australia against England at Melbourne's Junction Oval in February 1958, when she became the first Aboriginal woman to play for any Australian sports team.
She was a survivor of the Stolen Generations and was raised at Colebrook Home in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, where as a child she played improvised cricket games on dirt roads using homemade bats and a rock if there was no ball.
A fearsome fast bowler, Faith would often joke that her speed was the result of "chucking stones at Galahs" and that she was "still the fastest woman bowler ever". It was only after training as a nurse that Faith learned that women played organised cricket, and her career began when she was invited by a colleague to participate in a club game in Adelaide.
