Emma Miller Awards
EMMA MILLER AWARDS
Celebrating the achievements of women in the Queensland Union Movement
Emma Miller was a strong advocate for workers and women’s rights in Queensland in the last century. As a tribute to the spirit of this woman and to celebrate the achievements of contemporary union women, the Queensland Council of Unions host the annual Emma Miller Awards Dinner. These awards recognise our women for their commitment to their union and its members.
The Emma Miller Story
Born in England at the time of the Industrial Revolution and the reign of Queen Victoria - 1839 - Emma was influenced by her father to be a rebel by participating with him in Chartist activities. A creed she then learnt - The world is my country: to do good is my religion - was the one by which she lived her life. She married three times and had four children and migrated to Queensland with her second husband in 1879.
Emma Miller was a foundation member of the Labor Party, President of the Woman's Equal Franchise Association (1894 - 1905) the period of its existence, an active participant in the Early closing Association, aided the formation of the first women's union (Brisbane), as a seamstress she gave evidence at the 1891 Royal Commission into Shops, Factories and Workshops. She was the first woman to undertake an organising tour of Western Queensland under the auspices of the AWU and although she supported William Lane and the Shearers' strike, she opposed his leaving to form a Utopian settlement in Paraguay. Her action during the 1912 strike at the age of 73, of thrusting her hatpin into the Police Commissioners horse became legendary, although her family maintained that she actually dug it into the Police Commissioner.
She was an anti-militarist, becoming involved in the 1914-18 anti-conscription struggles until her death in 1917 at the age of 77. She was respected for her courage in one so frail and for her staunch advocacy of labor principles.
From Pam Young “ Proud to Be a Rebel”
Other sources of information on Emma Miller
http://www.qldwoman.qld.gov.au/docs/suffrage/Emma%20Miller.pdf
http://www.australianworkersheritagecentre.com.au/10_pdf/miller.pdf
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/federation/CMFedMiller.htm
THE NTEU EMMA MILLER RECIPIENTS – aka“HAT PIN ALUMNI”:
Further information:
| 2007 Chris Diamond UQ | 2007 Chris Diamond UQ |
| 2006 Maureen Ah Sam QUT | 2006 Maureen Ah Sam QUT |
| 2005 Robin Fisher ACU | 2005 Robin Fisher ACU |
| 2004 Maureen Chandler UQ NTEU Staff | 2004 Maureen Chandler UQ NTEU Staff |
| 2003 Di Menghetti JCU | 2003 Di Menghetti JCU |
| 2002 Carol Kearnes USQ | 2002 Carol Kearnes USQ |
| 2001 Linda Hort: Griffith University | 2001 Linda Hort: Griffith University |
| 2000 Carole Ferrier | 2000 Carole Ferrier UQ |
| 1999 Margaret Buckridge | 1999 � Margaret Buckridge � Griffith University |
| 1998 Di Zetlin | 1998 Di Zetlin UQ |
| 1997: Phyllis McPherson-Foster | 1997 Phyllis McPherson Foster Griffith University QCM |