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The Mind of a Thief
Exploring the history of the Wiradjuri people, the conflict of colonization, their mythologies, and their attachment to the land, author Patti Miller reveals both her own story and the position of Aboriginal people in today’s society in this fascinating memoir. For 40,000 years, the Central New South Wales area of Wellington was Aboriginal Wiradjuri land. Following the arrival of white men, it became a penal settlement, a mission station, a gold-mining town, and a farming center with a history of white comfort and black marginalization. In the late 20th century, it was also the subject of the first post-Mabo native title claim, bringing new hope—and controversy—to the area and its people. Patti, a local of the area, explores Australian identity in relation to her beloved but stolen country. Black and white politics, the processes of colonization, family mythologies, generational conflict, and the power of place are evoked as she weaves a story that is very personal and, at the same time, a universal tale of belonging.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 25, 2014
And on today’s episode of “Books Kit would never have read for good reason if English class hadn’t made her: the worst book yet.” In fact, if I’m being honest with myself, I think this might be the worst book I’ve ever read. And in case you haven’t taken a gander at my shelves, I’ve read some pretty shitty books. I’ve read Fifty Shades, Twilight, Matched, Fallen, The Selection and Something Special, the book that I still wonder “how could such a great author have written such a shit book?”, but you know that? This takes the cake. It really does. And it’s not even because of terrible content, it’s just…nothing happens.
The Mind Of A Thief is a memoir written by Patti Miller with a focus on her hometown of Wellington, which happens to be mostly land belonging to a local Aboriginal community, and follows her being a nosy asshole into business that isn’t hers regarding Native Land Claims because she appears to be having some sort of mid-life crisis.
Supposedly this book was meant to help us understand the concept of identity and belonging. All I learned about my own identity through reading this is that clearly I have much better taste in books than whoever came up with this year’s spectacularly shitty book list.
Patti Miller is not a good writer. Some writers can switch between time periods, go into memory sequences and even have entirely disjointed cut-to-pieces-and-stitched-up-in-the-wrong-order narratives and make it work extremely well. Ms. Miller is not one of these writers. Ms. Miller is the kind of writer who goes off on a three page tangent in the middle of a conversation that may have actually given the book some sense of plot or suspense or intrigue had it been handled correctly. I don’t care about her childhood—by all accounts, her own included, it is not thrilling. Nothing happened. She was on the poorer end of things, grew up on the family farm out in the bush and then moved to Sydney when she got a bit older—not all that thrilling. Honestly, that’s her entire life story. Seemingly pleasant enough to her, someone who lived it, but not particularly thrilling to the average reader—you know, someone who reads books in order to achieve some kind of excitement that every day living just ain’t cutting?
Just about everyone she interviews or speaks with seems to be incredibly rude—like really rude, including her own brother who I found to be the most insufferable of the lot (Which is pretty astounding given how boring it was to have to read what was effectively his incredibly boring sister’s stream of consciousness writing), and seemed to have some kind of underlying sexism thing going on? Either way, I didn’t like him, I didn’t like anyone Ms. Miller spoke to, and I definitely did not like Ms. Miller. She is by far the most boring person I have ever encountered, I really cannot stress that enough.
The entire moral of this book seems to not be something about identity and belonging (Though I assume that was what both the author and the school council intended) but rather a case of “white people really shouldn’t be nosy into the business of indigenous communities and basically make an ass of themselves out of curiosity and their own mid-life-crisis related issues. If I could give this book a zero, believe me: I would.
The Mind Of A Thief is a memoir written by Patti Miller with a focus on her hometown of Wellington, which happens to be mostly land belonging to a local Aboriginal community, and follows her being a nosy asshole into business that isn’t hers regarding Native Land Claims because she appears to be having some sort of mid-life crisis.
Supposedly this book was meant to help us understand the concept of identity and belonging. All I learned about my own identity through reading this is that clearly I have much better taste in books than whoever came up with this year’s spectacularly shitty book list.
Patti Miller is not a good writer. Some writers can switch between time periods, go into memory sequences and even have entirely disjointed cut-to-pieces-and-stitched-up-in-the-wrong-order narratives and make it work extremely well. Ms. Miller is not one of these writers. Ms. Miller is the kind of writer who goes off on a three page tangent in the middle of a conversation that may have actually given the book some sense of plot or suspense or intrigue had it been handled correctly. I don’t care about her childhood—by all accounts, her own included, it is not thrilling. Nothing happened. She was on the poorer end of things, grew up on the family farm out in the bush and then moved to Sydney when she got a bit older—not all that thrilling. Honestly, that’s her entire life story. Seemingly pleasant enough to her, someone who lived it, but not particularly thrilling to the average reader—you know, someone who reads books in order to achieve some kind of excitement that every day living just ain’t cutting?
Just about everyone she interviews or speaks with seems to be incredibly rude—like really rude, including her own brother who I found to be the most insufferable of the lot (Which is pretty astounding given how boring it was to have to read what was effectively his incredibly boring sister’s stream of consciousness writing), and seemed to have some kind of underlying sexism thing going on? Either way, I didn’t like him, I didn’t like anyone Ms. Miller spoke to, and I definitely did not like Ms. Miller. She is by far the most boring person I have ever encountered, I really cannot stress that enough.
The entire moral of this book seems to not be something about identity and belonging (Though I assume that was what both the author and the school council intended) but rather a case of “white people really shouldn’t be nosy into the business of indigenous communities and basically make an ass of themselves out of curiosity and their own mid-life-crisis related issues. If I could give this book a zero, believe me: I would.
April 1, 2013
A gentle, clear-sighted memoir. I picked this up at the 2012 Sydney Writers' Festival. Then I put it down again, because it sounded too serious. Then I picked it up again, because who could resist the blurb: "How do you belong to a stolen land?"
Damn right.
Miller takes a look at the history of Wellington in central, inland NSW. The 'inland' thing matters, you get a sense of heat and space in this book. Or maybe sparsity.
In particular, Miller seeks to examine the Wiradjuri people who lived there, against a backdrop of native land title controversy - not only black-white, but black-black controversy. Miller's cool honesty is probably the only way to present such a complicated & sad story. She pieces together not just the history but the *story* of these people (for the distinction, please read the book :) & her own people, & how they interacted. Being a woman, she is forbidden from some secret wisdom of the Wiradjuri men - but it's not just gender, it's the colour of her skin and it's *time* that locks her out, so many stories lost because they're unwritten.
Some of this book affected me deeply. The spiritual landscape where Wiradjuri children would be brought so that a star could be chosen for them, for instance. Also, the assertion that this small part of the world is where 'all story comes from'.
I don't know that I made any new conclusions from this book. It seems more to be a recording, a history made to meet the absence of history, the lost stories.
I did begin to wonder, though, why we need our history written down when so many people have managed to 'tell' their histories, person to person, a living, human chain of story.
BTW, the answer to the question - how do you belong to a stolen land - is, I think, "precariously".
A worthy addition to the Stella Longlist for 2012.
#aww2013 no.11
Damn right.
Miller takes a look at the history of Wellington in central, inland NSW. The 'inland' thing matters, you get a sense of heat and space in this book. Or maybe sparsity.
In particular, Miller seeks to examine the Wiradjuri people who lived there, against a backdrop of native land title controversy - not only black-white, but black-black controversy. Miller's cool honesty is probably the only way to present such a complicated & sad story. She pieces together not just the history but the *story* of these people (for the distinction, please read the book :) & her own people, & how they interacted. Being a woman, she is forbidden from some secret wisdom of the Wiradjuri men - but it's not just gender, it's the colour of her skin and it's *time* that locks her out, so many stories lost because they're unwritten.
Some of this book affected me deeply. The spiritual landscape where Wiradjuri children would be brought so that a star could be chosen for them, for instance. Also, the assertion that this small part of the world is where 'all story comes from'.
I don't know that I made any new conclusions from this book. It seems more to be a recording, a history made to meet the absence of history, the lost stories.
I did begin to wonder, though, why we need our history written down when so many people have managed to 'tell' their histories, person to person, a living, human chain of story.
BTW, the answer to the question - how do you belong to a stolen land - is, I think, "precariously".
A worthy addition to the Stella Longlist for 2012.
#aww2013 no.11
August 29, 2014
VCE TEXT LIST -
Sometimes things... are just difficult to achieve. The hardest of them all is finding/discovering an excellent book that reflects Indigenous values in both an interesting and exciting way for students. It makes me sick to think that schools are still using 'Deadly Unna' as a text simply because it's the only fucking book out there that has - by the education board's and many schools' standards - a genuine representation of Indigenous culture relevant to highschoolers.
I call bullshit on that one.
Now translate this problem to VCE where Indigenous representation is a mandatory category. Oh my God. I pity the people who have to wade through the amount of crap just to come up with something still crap, but only slightly less so.
"The Mind of a Thief" tackles your Indigenous category and 'Identity and Belonging' category in one veritable throw of the stone. The problem is that this book struggles with its own identity issues - subliminally, and not consciously. Patti Miller can't make up her mind whether it's a story about Native Title, or an autobiography, or a descriptive literary novel about the fecundity of the Australian bush. It truly is all and everything in between. What this uncertainty creates is a banal novel that - yes - ticks all the boxes, but in such a way that you're going to lose your students' interest after page 10.
Native Title and the plight of Indigenous issues is crucial to know - and I'm still ashamed that I had to wait until university to learn about it. However, presenting students with books that a) won't hold their interest and b) inspires contemptuousness is not the best way to tackle Indigenous issues.
So here are my two recommendations.
Firstly, take 'Deadly Unna' off the curriculum. And secondly, take "Mind of a Thief" off the VCE text list.
Sometimes things... are just difficult to achieve. The hardest of them all is finding/discovering an excellent book that reflects Indigenous values in both an interesting and exciting way for students. It makes me sick to think that schools are still using 'Deadly Unna' as a text simply because it's the only fucking book out there that has - by the education board's and many schools' standards - a genuine representation of Indigenous culture relevant to highschoolers.
I call bullshit on that one.
Now translate this problem to VCE where Indigenous representation is a mandatory category. Oh my God. I pity the people who have to wade through the amount of crap just to come up with something still crap, but only slightly less so.
"The Mind of a Thief" tackles your Indigenous category and 'Identity and Belonging' category in one veritable throw of the stone. The problem is that this book struggles with its own identity issues - subliminally, and not consciously. Patti Miller can't make up her mind whether it's a story about Native Title, or an autobiography, or a descriptive literary novel about the fecundity of the Australian bush. It truly is all and everything in between. What this uncertainty creates is a banal novel that - yes - ticks all the boxes, but in such a way that you're going to lose your students' interest after page 10.
Native Title and the plight of Indigenous issues is crucial to know - and I'm still ashamed that I had to wait until university to learn about it. However, presenting students with books that a) won't hold their interest and b) inspires contemptuousness is not the best way to tackle Indigenous issues.
So here are my two recommendations.
Firstly, take 'Deadly Unna' off the curriculum. And secondly, take "Mind of a Thief" off the VCE text list.
December 27, 2014
Loved it. Purely inspirational. Truly helped me in finding my fragmented identity and sense of belonging. LOLJOKES. Waste of my life.
August 15, 2014
I cannot believe they made us read this for school!
July 22, 2016
I signed up to this website simply to tell you how badly written this book is, in both substance, form, in context and content. This shoddily written piece of work covers the life of a white-guilt ( a concept that isn't real) ridden, irritating redheaded Irish women who traces her Aboriginal lineage in a method akin to pulling fingernails out from skin. Miller projects her insecurities in such a way as to assist in the current degeneration and race-baiting prevalent in modern society, contributing almost no intellectual content, no new ideas, no philosophical content nor original content. It was boring in the extreme, a poorly written, poorly chosen, piece of literary disappointment.
Normally I would hold my tongue and keep my opinion to myself, but since reading this book was mandatory I feel the need to underscore just how horrific the experience of reading it is. Perhaps, for more entertainment consider paint drying or grass growing.
Normally I would hold my tongue and keep my opinion to myself, but since reading this book was mandatory I feel the need to underscore just how horrific the experience of reading it is. Perhaps, for more entertainment consider paint drying or grass growing.
May 16, 2014
An easy enjoyable memoir with some really sparkling writing at times. I began to care for all involved in the story. However, I only read this as it was part of my 18 year old nephew's reading list for VCE and I have to say I wouldn't have thought him Miller's target market for her story - a middle aged scholarly lady searching for her own identity and belonging amongst the land rights claim of other elderly and middle aged individuals. It's probably a lot for a teenage boy to care for much!
September 16, 2015
Couldn't finish it. Seemed so contrived and almost as if it was written deliberately to sell to schools as a year 12 English 'identity and belonging' text. She claims to have had an upbringing alongside her indigenous friends but fails to name a single one. Self indulgent.
October 19, 2025
I wanted to read this book bc I was interested to see why a white woman had written a memoir about realising that Aboriginal people also grew up in the town she did and maybe had a different experience to her, and essentially if there was any point to this book exisiting. Short answer: no.
If anything this book is a compelling argument for why people need to be able to tell their own cultural stories and a warning about self absorbed white idiots getting in everyone’s way feeling entitled to sharing stories from irrelevant perspectives which are none of their business in the first place. At first I thought maybe she is trying to document her changing mindset as she met more Wiradjuri people and educate the reader so that less labour from Aboriginal people is required in the future bc more people know better. Nup, she’s really just like this. Also the prose is quite annoying, like it makes perfectttt sense that the author teachers memoir writing with the amount of flowy trying to be evocative language.
I am baffled at how this was published and how funding happened, like literally the book is called the mind of a thief. Did she get paid for telling the story of her learning about other peoples lives and linking it back to her/ making it about her? The optics of this are fucked.
I will leave you with this excerpt which hopefully demonstrates that I am not overreacting. From an interview with Wayne Carr who is a key figure in the Wiradjuri Native Title case.
“Just before I left, Wayne and I had an argument. I had been going to pick on a few things he said, but each time reminded myself that I was there to listen, not argue the point. Then he said something that undid my disciplined intentions.
‘You can’t take country out of me. You can’t take country out of the man,’ he said.
‘Or woman,’ I said. ‘I go back to Wellington often because my mum still lives there and whenever I go back, it’s like the country knows me.’
Wayne looked at me, all his attention focused. ‘I know how special you feel about it, but it’s more special to me.’ He said it as gently as he had said anything all afternoon, but I still wasn’t going to let that go.
‘I don’t think you can say that. I know about country. And you can’t know if one person’s feeling is more than another’s.’
‘Whitefellas say they own country. We don’t say that. We say country owns us.’
‘I know it’s not about owning. I know that.’ I felt impatient. Who did he think I was? ‘We don’t own anything there anymore, but it belongs to us…’”
That is one page of 291 and less than half of that conversation where they end up (spoiler alert) agreeing to disagree 😵💫
If anything this book is a compelling argument for why people need to be able to tell their own cultural stories and a warning about self absorbed white idiots getting in everyone’s way feeling entitled to sharing stories from irrelevant perspectives which are none of their business in the first place. At first I thought maybe she is trying to document her changing mindset as she met more Wiradjuri people and educate the reader so that less labour from Aboriginal people is required in the future bc more people know better. Nup, she’s really just like this. Also the prose is quite annoying, like it makes perfectttt sense that the author teachers memoir writing with the amount of flowy trying to be evocative language.
I am baffled at how this was published and how funding happened, like literally the book is called the mind of a thief. Did she get paid for telling the story of her learning about other peoples lives and linking it back to her/ making it about her? The optics of this are fucked.
I will leave you with this excerpt which hopefully demonstrates that I am not overreacting. From an interview with Wayne Carr who is a key figure in the Wiradjuri Native Title case.
“Just before I left, Wayne and I had an argument. I had been going to pick on a few things he said, but each time reminded myself that I was there to listen, not argue the point. Then he said something that undid my disciplined intentions.
‘You can’t take country out of me. You can’t take country out of the man,’ he said.
‘Or woman,’ I said. ‘I go back to Wellington often because my mum still lives there and whenever I go back, it’s like the country knows me.’
Wayne looked at me, all his attention focused. ‘I know how special you feel about it, but it’s more special to me.’ He said it as gently as he had said anything all afternoon, but I still wasn’t going to let that go.
‘I don’t think you can say that. I know about country. And you can’t know if one person’s feeling is more than another’s.’
‘Whitefellas say they own country. We don’t say that. We say country owns us.’
‘I know it’s not about owning. I know that.’ I felt impatient. Who did he think I was? ‘We don’t own anything there anymore, but it belongs to us…’”
That is one page of 291 and less than half of that conversation where they end up (spoiler alert) agreeing to disagree 😵💫
July 15, 2016
incoherent, dull, shapeless; with some interesting as-it-happened history of one of the first land rights claims and the background and personalities. Author teaches memoir writing, which she seems to assume the reader already knows, and seems to assume all memories are interesting without needing good writing or structure
January 5, 2013
Patti Miller writes with clarity and power in this memoir. A great read. (Excellent choice for US readers who are interested in Australia.)
August 20, 2013
I loved this book and I was inspired by it.
July 8, 2021
pretty hard to get through this book - but i was determined to read it as JP let me borrow it during the first lockdown when i didn’t have anything else to read. Quite interesting and informative on the history of NSW.
July 22, 2015
WARNING THIS BOOK IS DISASTROUS
Patti Miller should never have been let near a computer. Honestly I don't think I've ever read such a horrible book. Patti seems to have lots of strong "memories" from her childhood, frankly I think they've been made up as most people don't remember much if anything from their childhood. When reading this book I thought possitively beileve that it would eventually get better. It did not. It got worse. This book is honestly a disaster, it getting published is a miracle.
Patti Miller should never have been let near a computer. Honestly I don't think I've ever read such a horrible book. Patti seems to have lots of strong "memories" from her childhood, frankly I think they've been made up as most people don't remember much if anything from their childhood. When reading this book I thought possitively beileve that it would eventually get better. It did not. It got worse. This book is honestly a disaster, it getting published is a miracle.
August 23, 2020
This is a beautiful book that asks some hard questions without giving glib answers. I am convinced that Miller can indeed write about anything—including blades of grass—and make it fascinating and thought provoking.
https://denisenewtonwrites.com/?p=1370
The Mind of a Thief
Patti Miller
https://denisenewtonwrites.com/?p=1370
The Mind of a Thief
Patti Miller
July 22, 2016
Really really bad... I had to read this for school and I couldn't believe this was even published. It was incredibly boring, uninteresting and I nearly threw it out the window. I don't understand how Patti Miller would think that anyone would be interested in the most uneventful story of her trying to find out her family history.
If you're looking at these reviews to see if you should read this crap... don't. It's like watching paint dry.
If you're looking at these reviews to see if you should read this crap... don't. It's like watching paint dry.
February 24, 2016
This book was all over the place. It aimlessly drifted between the author's musings over her identity and the process of discovering the indigenous history of her home town. The structure was really hard to follow. A book from the library, an autobiography, a book about a culture you're unfamiliar with.
June 3, 2021
I enjoyed parts of it but I am not a huge fan of the memoir genre. It rambled too much for my liking.
January 7, 2018
It's interesting book to read. It makes you think about how we belong to a land that was stolen, along with making me think about myself and how I view the world.
January 16, 2016
insightful and stirring, challenging and thought provoking. Recommend for all.
January 18, 2016
Tried to be thought-provoking, but was simply tedious and dull. Can I give a negative rating?
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews