Mick Miller was born on Palm Island, Queensland on 16 January 1937, son of Michael Miller Senior and Cissie Miller , and eldest of seven children. By the early 1960s Miller had married Pat O'Shane in Cairns, and together they had two daughters, Lydia and Marilyn. Later he married Barbara Russell, and had a son, Michael. Miller died from a heart seizure on 5 April 1998. It was reported that his funeral was attended by over a thousand people.
After qualifying as a teacher in 1959, Miller was posted to Cairns, Queensland to teach at the North Cairns State Primary School. 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. Having left teaching, Miller instead became an active member of the local branch of the Aboriginal Advancement League, and, by 1971-1972 had become Vice-President of a Federal Council for the Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. He also helped establish the original, politically active and influential North Queensland Land Council, of which he was Chair for some time. Miller also sat as a Board Member of the Aboriginal Arts Board, and by the 1980s had become a Commissioner with the Aboriginal Development Commission and, later, Deputy Chair of the ADC, from where he sought to promote economic development as the key to getting Aboriginal people off welfare and government dependence. 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": a significant Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander training and employment policy document that was to become an Aboriginal employment and training 'blueprint' with 'pivotal impact on Government program policies for some time to come. During the 1990s Miller chaired the State Tripartite Forum and in this way he became involved in many founding State policies and programs to improve the health of the Aboriginal people in Queensland.
Political dissident
By the early 1970s Miller, along with other local Aboriginal Australians in the Cairns region, had become active members of a local predominantly Aboriginal branch of the Aboriginal Advancement League; had become effective advocates on the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders ; were involved in founding an Aboriginal Legal Service to bring legal assistance to Aboriginal peoples in the North Queensland region; and, with the formation of the North Queensland Land Council in January 1976 were campaigning for Aboriginal land rights. It was during this period that, following national success in a 1967 referendum winning Aboriginal Australians the right to be included on Australian electoral rolls, Miller plus 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 Islanderreserves. While visiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Miller and Grogan assisted people to sign onto electoral rolls, so confirming their reputation with the Queensland Government, and Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen for being trouble-makers and political dissenters:
''Couldn't Be Fairer''
In 1984 Miller wrote and narrated a film named Couldn't Be Fairer about that state's treatment of Aboriginal peoples. The film was produced in collaboration with filmmakerDennis O'Rourke 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
