Oliver is a thoughtful and creative man. He has been able to share his perspectives on a variety of topics related to his disability through his poetry. Oliver has entered his poetry and art in several competitions and has won the following awards/acknowledgements:
- 2015 Tea Tree Gully Poetry Festival, The Ken Vincent Poetry Competition. Oliver Mills received “Commended” in the Adult Section for his poem “Light”. The poem was also published in The Tea Tree Gully Poetry Festival 2015 Selected Poems book.
- 2014 Julia Farr Association Purple Orange Perspective Art Exhibition – Oliver received the People’s Choice Award.
He has also recently published a coffee table book called ‘Poetic Moments’ to share his work. Oliver’s poems include insightful messages in relation to topics like epilepsy, vision impairment, the importance of ‘talking’, taking his turn, and his frustrations with waiting.
Oliver has also given several public lectures to share the story of his life with others. He presents information on ‘a typical day’ for him, his goals and dreams, and those aspects of his life that enable him to meet those goals. Although presenting these lectures makes him nervous, he is always proud afterwards to share his story and hopes to inspire others.
Oliver works extremely hard to dictate his lectures and to create his poetry. Despite the communication challenges that arise for him as an auditory scanner, he is determined to have his own say. He patiently utilises strategies like word lists from the internet, use of the Thesaurus and many others to ensure that the words he writes are his own. From these words, others can learn about and reflect on these topics from his perspective. Below is an example of his poem ‘Talking Is’ which sums up communication from his perspective as a person who uses AAC.
Talking is thought
Talking is thinking
Talking is me.
I, You, Us
Talking feels
Clean and New