Michael John "Mick" Miller (16 January 1937 – 5 April 1998) was a notable Aboriginal Australian activist, politician, and statesman who campaigned for most of his life seeking greater social justice, land rights, and improved life opportunities for Aboriginal Australians in North Queensland and the rest of Australia.
Early life and education
Michael John Miller was born on 16 January 1937 on Palm Island, Queensland, son of Michael Miller Senior (Waanyi) and Cissie Miller (née Sibley) (Kuku Yalanji), and eldest of seven children (five girls and two boys).[1][2]
By 1959 Miller had graduated from Kelvin Grove Teachers College in Brisbane, where he was one of the first Aboriginal Australians in Queensland to become a fully qualified teacher.[1]
Career
After qualifying as a teacher in 1959, Miller was posted to Cairns, Queensland to teach at the North Cairns State Primary School.[1] Some years later he resigned from this position, having encountered some resistance and difficulties within the Department of Education regarding his political activities and attendance at a World Council of Indigenous Peoples in Samiland (Sweden).[1]
In 1985, the Commonwealth Government appointed Miller to head up a federal government review of employment, education and training, ultimately producing what came to be known as the "Miller Report".[1] This was a significant Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander training and employment policy document that was to become an Aboriginal employment and training blueprint[4] with "pivotal impact on Government program policies for some time to come".[5]
During the 1990s Miller chaired the State Tripartite Forum (a Queensland Government-sponsored Aboriginal health organisation) and in this way he became involved in many founding state policies and programs to improve the health of the Aboriginal people in Queensland.[1]
It was during this period that, following national success in the 1967 referendum winning Aboriginal Australians the right to be included on Australian electoral rolls, Miller and Clarry Grogan chose in 1977 to accompany Fred Hollows and his National Trachoma and Eye Health Program team on visits to North Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander reserves.[citation needed] While visiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Miller and Grogan assisted people to sign onto electoral rolls,[7] so confirming their reputation with the Queensland Government, and Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen for being trouble-makers and political dissenters:[7]
"On Thursday Island, our team encountered political discrimination and harassment against two Aboriginal liaison officers, Mick Miller, a Kalkadoon man, and Clarrie Grogan, a Kuku Yalanji man [..] At this time, the Queensland government did not encourage the inclusion of Aboriginal and Islander people on the electoral roll (a right they only gained after the 1967 referendum), and both incurred the government's wrath when it was alleged that they helped their people to sign on to the electoral roll [...] So-called political dissidence like this was not tolerated in Queensland .. Grogan and Miller were dismissed. Shortly after, the NTEHP in Queensland was stopped."
In 1984 Miller wrote and narrated a film named Couldn't Be Fairer (the expressed point of view of the then Premier of Queensland) about that state's treatment of Aboriginal peoples. The film was produced in collaboration with filmmaker Dennis O'Rourke[8] to bring attention to the social injustices that were endured by Aboriginal people. The film included television footage and clips of politicians and businessmen openly expressing racist views[9] (including Western Australian mining magnate, Lang Hancock suggesting mass sterilisation; a town mayor calling Aboriginal people "savages", and a Queensland Graziers Association spokesperson dividing people into "true Aborigines" and "hybrids".[10])
He met Queensland-born journalist Barbara Joyce Russell in 1973, she moved in with him in 1974. In 1977 Miller dissolved his marriage to O'Shane, and married Russell on 23 July 1978 in the Cairns Botanical Gardens. They had a son together, but split up in 1987.[2]
Death and legacy
Miller died from a heart seizure on 5 April 1998. It was reported that his funeral was attended by over a thousand people.[11]
In 1998 Queensland's Land Rights newspaper summarised and described Miller and his life's contribution as follows:[1]
Mick Miller was a respected elder statesman and a long-time mover and shaker in the Aboriginal struggle for social justice and land rights in Australia ... From early struggles and fights for recognition of basic rights for Indigenous people, such as proper health care, adequate housing, freedom of movement and land rights, Mick Miller led from the front ... one of the foremost national Indigenous leaders, a man of great vision, tremendous generosity of spirit ..., possessed of an infallible sense of humour, incredible optimism against all odds and great staying power in the Aboriginal movement ...
