Born east of Japingka, an important jila or permanent waterhole in the Great Sandy Desert, he grew up as a hunter-gatherer.
Like many of his people he drifted north toward the river valleys and the sheep and cattle stations where food was more plentiful.
[1] He was named Jimmy Pike, after Phar Lap's jockey, by a cattle station manager.
[1] During a solo exhibition of his paintings at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery London in 1998, Pike and his wife Pat Lowe attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace.
[3] He held a joint exhibition with Zhou Xiaoping in the National Gallery of China, Beijing, called "Through the Eyes of Two Cultures".