Of Bidjara heritage on his father's side, his Aboriginal identity has played an important role in his work, which includes photography, video installations and sound recordings.

After being awarded the Charlie Perkins Scholarship, to complete his doctorate in Fine Arts at Oxford University, he has spent much time in England.

[2][3] Thompson's great-great-grandfather is King Billy of Bonny Doon Lorne, a senior tribesman of the Bidjara people who reigned for many years over the district.

He spent his formative years and family holidays in Barcaldine and in the bush learning the culture and traditions of his father's people from his grandmother and great aunts.

[6] While studying at Toowoomba and Melbourne, Thompson was heavily inspired by Fluxus artists George Maciunas and Yoko Ono, as well Andy Warhol and many others.

As his mother's family was from Bampton, Oxfordshire,[8] he also grew up surrounded by British television shows, and he looked to England rather than the United States, as many young people of his age did.

[citation needed] His series of photographs Lost Together was made in the Netherlands where Thompson undertook a residency program at DasArts developing his live performance work which brought together his Bidjara and European heritage, combining classical music, traditional rhythms and lyrical narratives into richly textured, lilting and evocative arrangements.

[12] His work was included in the 17th International Biennale of Sydney The Beauty of Distance - Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age, curated by David Elliot,[citation needed] and the 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art Before and After Science.

[14] His 2011 video work Dhagunyilangu, meaning brother, employs a British male opera singer to interpret the song written in Bidjara, one of many Aboriginal languages which have been lost during colonisation.

[15] It was included in the TarraWarra Biennial in Melbourne[16] as well as the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University in 2012, as part of the photographic series, We Bury Our Own.

In January 2015, Oxford's Trinity College took down the old paintings in its dining room for the first time in over 400 years to display an exhibition of Thompson's work.