The new ACT Australian of the Year is basketball star and Indigenous rights advocate Patty Mills.
Apart from playing basketball at the highest level for the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA, the Canberran has worked tirelessly for the underprivileged and the marginalised.
He created Indigenous Basketball Australia to encourage Indigenous people and Torres Strait Islanders to get into the game which he loves (and which he plays so well).
Last year, IBA donated $1.5 million to organisations tackling racial inequality.
He also founded the Team Mills Foundation which is a not-for-profit organisation "supporting and championing culture, diversity, women and underprivileged families and enacting positive change for the environment worldwide".
Since leaving Canberra in 2007 on an American sporting scholarship, Mills has had a legendary basketball career. He became an NBA Champion in 2014 with the San Antonio Spurs, and recently competed in his fourth Olympics, leading the Australian side in Tokyo to its first-ever medal: bronze.
Another star Australian basketballer, Andrew Gaze, said of Mills: "The way he uses his platform to bring people together rather than divide, the way he speaks with such a positive tone and the appropriate way he alerts people to some very, very important and significant causes for our country - he does it spectacularly well."
ACT Senior Australian of the Year
The ACT's Senior Australian of the Year is St John Ambulance volunteer Valmai Dempsey, who started as a cadet volunteer while still in primary school more than 50 years ago.
She is one of the ACT's longest-serving volunteers. The award organisation said: "Year after year, she still dedicates more hours than any other volunteer."
In 2020, she and her colleagues faced the immense challenge of the bushfires where she led 40 fellow volunteers as they supported fire-affected communities.
"Then when the pandemic hit, Val displayed unwavering commitment to the St John team, despite heavy impacts on team morale. Without hesitation, she personally contacted every volunteer to check they were 'doing OK'.
"It is these tireless commitments to St John that has led many in the community to know her lovingly as 'Aunty Val'."
ACT Young Australian of the Year
The 2022 ACT Young Australian of the Year is Sean Dondas.
He got involved with the CanTeen organisation in 2008 at the age of 14 after his mother contracted cancer, fatally as it transpired. CanTeen helps young people cope with cancer in the family.
His mother's death left him and his two younger brothers as wards of the state.
He's spent the past 13 years helping many young people in similar situations.
ACT Local Hero
The ACT Local Hero is Luke Ferguson, a youth support worker at Woden School which caters for students with disabilities.
The organisers of the award said he "empowers young people with disability to increase their independence, achieve their goals, and engage with the wider community".
In 2019, he set up Party Down Productions, a program at school which involves students in planning events, from making posters to making music.
A video he and students made - "Labels Don't Define Us' - went viral with more than 120,000 views.
The four ACT recipients will join those from the other states and territories for the national awards to be announced on January 25.
