Olga Miller

She was a member of the Butchulla people, of whom her paternal grandfather Willie Wondunna was an important leader and her son Glen is now an elder. Her maternal grandfather, meanwhile, was 19th-century English-born missionary J. B. Gribble, well known for his work with Indigenous Australians.

USQ dedicated a garden on its Fraser Coast campus to her in December 2009, the Olga Miller Memorial Garden. Both the garden and Buallam Jarl-Bah have remained since the campus’ transfer to the University of the Sunshine Coast.

In April 2003, she was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), on whose Fraser Coast campus she had helped establish Buallum Jarl-Bah, a centre for Indigenous learning.

Miller died in August 2003 in Maryborough. Her death was acknowledged by member for Maryborough Chris Foley on the floor of Queensland parliament.

Miller received a Centenary Medal for “services to reconciliation and the preservation of Aboriginal history” on New Year’s Day 2001, and in 2002 was named a Queensland Great, an honour which “recognises the efforts and achievements of remarkable individuals… for their invaluable contribution to the history and development of [the] state”.

Miller worked in various media, writing for school textbooks, animated films and newspapers; presenting on radio; and illustrating children’s stories. In 1964, she illustrated The Legends of Moonie Jarl, written by her brother Wilf Reeves, which is the first known published children’s book authored by an Aboriginal Australian. She illustrated it under her traditional Butchulla name, Wandi, which means “wild duck”.

Olga changed her surname from Wondunna to Reeves, before marrying Ronald Richard Miller on 1 June 1940 and taking his name.

Olga Eunice Miller (née Wondunna, later Reeves; 27 March 1920 – August 2003), often known as Aunty (or Auntie) Olga or by her traditional name Wandi, was an Australian historian, artist, author and Aboriginal elder of the Butchulla people. She often acted as an advocate for K’gari (Fraser Island) and Butchulla issues, and illustrated The Legends of Moonie Jarl, the first known Australian Aboriginal–written children’s book to be published. In 2002 she was named a Queensland Great.

The youngest of seven siblings, Miller was born Olga Eunice Wondunna on 27 March 1920 in Maryborough, Queensland to mother Ethel Marion Reeves (née Gribble) and father Frederick Wondunna. Her parents’ relationship, that of an Indigenous man and a white woman, was deeply controversial in its time and opposed by Ethel’s brother Ernest Gribble in particular.