Tommy Crow / Sunset Dreaming (TC523)

Tommy was born in Cunumulla in South West Queensland in 1966. He led a fairly simple life out in the bush with little in the way of possessions and worldly goods as money was scarce.

Tommy’s father was a stockman and his mother worked in a local retail store in Cunumulla. Tommy has two older sisters and an older brother and one brother younger than him. Sadly both his brothers have passed away.

As a child, Tommy has vivid memories of running around the bush, a fringe dweller on the outskirts of Cunumulla. Tommy’s family lived in a corrugated tin humpy with a fire outside for cooking, light and warmth. There was no electricity and the tin roof would often leak water through the nail holes when it rained.  All the kids would sleep together in one bed and they would later go and fish for crab and hunt kangaroo and other animals with the elders from the Mardgany tribe. Tommy went fishing as often as he could with his uncles and brothers who would teach him about the cultural ways. Learning to survive and learning culture were an important part of growing up for Tommy.

Tommy’s Dad passed away when he was only three years old and sadly his mother passed on when he was thirteen. He then moved to Toowoomba, South East Qld to live with his Aunty Zona and completed year eleven high school. When Tommy turned seventeen, he embarked on a four year apprenticeship in spray painting and on completing his trade certificate he travelled and worked through North and Central Queensland, finally settling in Roma for four years working as a spray painter. Tommy was twenty-six when he arrived in Alice Springs in 1992.

Upon arriving in Alice Springs in Central Australia, Tommy began spray painting and making and painting didgeridoos. Tommy’s business partner in the didgeridoo business moved away from the Alice in 1995. Tommy has been painting independently and performing as a didge player in Alice and other parts of Australia and the world since this time.

Tommy has been an independent artist and performer for many years now. He sells his artwork privately and to galleries, runs workshops at schools for kids and plays didgeridoo at private functions and corporate events.

Career Highlights

Germany 1996
• Performed Didgeridoo over two weeks in seven German cities
USA 2004
• Performed Didgeridoo, dance and painted for 8 weeks at Disney World, Florida
S. Korea 2005
• Performed Didgeridoo at the opening of the Australian Aquarium
Australia 2007
• Performed Didgeridoo at the Sydney Opera House
• TV Commercial with Tourism NT and National Geographic

The artwork shows the desert country at sunset and the evening in Central Australia. The men will hunt for kangaroos and emus with boomerangs and spears as they make their way across the desert. Aboriginal boys are taught the skill of hunting in preparation for their initiation into manhood. The aboriginal men depicted in the paintings are holding a ceremony as they dance around the camp fire.