Growing up on Wiradjuri country

About the talk

Tim Miller, a local artist, and his sister Patti, a writer, grew up on Wiradjuri country, here in the Bathurst area and further west in Wellington. As adults and by coincidence, they both decided to examine their connection to Wiradjuri country by the mean of their individual crafts. Patti talked to Wiradjuri elders and researched historical records to write the book The Mind of a Thief (published 2012), an exploration of country, belonging and identity. Tim Miller wondered what the world meant for people looking from Wahluu and the Wambool and beyond, pre colonisation. He began an in-depth investigation into the visual landscape and how it may have been perceived by people in these regions. 

About the writer 

Patti Miller is the author of ten critically acclaimed books: The Last One Who Remembers, Whatever The Gods Do, The Mind of a Thief (award-winning and on VCE curriculum), Ransacking Paris, The Joy of High Places, Child, and best-selling texts, Writing Your Life, The Memoir Book and Writing True Stories. Her latest book is a memoir/creative nonfiction, True Friends, published by UQP. Patti is also published in newspapers and journals, including SMH, Melbourne Age, The Australian, The Adelaide Advertiser, Island, Southerly, Meanjin and The Guardian. She teaches memoir writing at universities, Faber Academy (Sydney and London), Writers’ Centres around Australia and in Paris. 

About the artist 

As a painter, Tim Miller is motivated by light, colour and the sensation of seeing. This has led him to research colour perception at varying light thresholds. The landscape is his main subject with some still life and figure painting. Born in Wellington NSW, he has studied painting for the past 50 years. He has taught at TAFE colleges, Universities and the Julian Ashton Art School, Sydney. His work can be seen at Rockley Studio and in public collections such as Parliament House, Canberra and the National Museum of Australia.