Damien Miller

Damien Miller is a Gangulu man who grew up in Meanjin (Brisbane) and whose ancestral lands are in the Callide and Dawson Valleys of Central Queensland. He is an AFSE Senior Fellow (2018 Cohort) and became AFSE Executive Director in September 2024.

He had a distinguished 25-year diplomatic career at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). From 2017 to 2024, he held various leadership roles at DFAT, including:

• Assistant Secretary of the European Union Branch

• Australia's Permanent Observer to the Organization of American States

• Minister Counsellor for Strategic Communications at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC

• Assistant Secretary of the Soft Power, Partnerships and Research Branch.

In 2013, Damien made history as the first Indigenous Australian appointed head of an overseas mission, serving as Australia's Ambassador to Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. He also served as Australia's Deputy Ambassador to Germany and Third Secretary to Malaysia.

Damien is a member of the Advisory Board of a New Approach (an independent Australian cultural policy think tank) and a Non-Executive Director of the Aurora Education Foundation (focused on Indigenous education). In 2022, he was an Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy International Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Washington, DC).

Before joining DFAT, Damien was actively engaged in Indigenous legal and human rights issues, including at the University of New South Wales Law School's Indigenous Law Centre and Australian Human Rights Centre.