Damien Miller

Damien Miller is Gangalu, whose ancestral lands are in Central Queensland, but grew up in Meanjin (Brisbane).  He is currently Minister Counsellor (Strategic Communications) at the Australian Embassy Washington DC and Australia’s Permanent Observer to the Organization of American States, headquartered in Washington DC.  Between 2017 and 2020, he was the Assistant Secretary of the Soft Power, Partnerships and Research Branch at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).  He is a member of the Advisory Board of a New Approach (an independent cultural policy think tank); a Non-Executive Director of the Aurora Education Foundation (focused on Indigenous education); and a Senior Atlantic Fellow at the Atlantic Institute (based at the Rhodes Trust, Oxford University).  From 2013-17 he was Australia’s Ambassador to Denmark, Norway and Iceland.  He was the first Indigenous Australian to be appointed head of an overseas mission.  Damien also served overseas as Australia’s Deputy Ambassador to Germany (2010-2013) and at the Australian High Commission in Malaysia (2000-2003).  Damien holds a Graduate Diploma in Foreign Affairs and Trade from Monash University and a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales.