HUMAN rights and social justice advocate Tom Calma is the Senior Australian of the Year for 2023 and the second consecutive ACT nominee to win the award.

First-aid advocate Val Dempsey, of St John’s, took out the top-senior gong last year.

Prof Calma is an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja tribal group, whose traditional lands are south-west of Darwin and on the NT’s Cobourg Peninsula.

He was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2022, and with his appointment as the sixth chancellor of the University of Canberra in January 2014 Prof Calma became the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander man to hold the position of chancellor of any Australian university.

In congratulating him the Australian Academy of Science said that for more than four decades he had championed the rights, responsibilities and welfare of indigenous peoples’ health, justice, education, and employment status at local, community, state and international levels.

“Alongside his social justice work, Prof Calma’s research interests include pharmacological application for scabies control, genomics, indigenous cancers, and tobacco control, as well as mental health and suicide prevention,” the Academy said.

“His work continues to have an enduring impact on public discourse in Australia and beyond: he co-led the co-design of a Voice to Parliament initiative, and his call for Australia to address the gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples was the catalyst for the Close the Gap Campaign.”

Professor Calma was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2012 and named ACT Australian of the Year in 2013 and ACT Senior Australian of the Year in 2023.

He was also recognised with an Australian Hero Tree Dedication of a hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghammii) at the National Arboretum in 2020.

Chair of the National Australia Day Council Danielle Roche OAM congratulated the 2023 Australian of the Year Award recipients, who include: Taryn Brumfitt, body image activist and internationally recognised keynote speaker; Awer Mabil, co-founder of a not-for-profit organisation for refugees; and Amar Singh, founder of a charity that transports grocery hampers and emergency goods to those in need.

“The 2023 Australians of the Year are great examples of the Australian spirit. Their courage, determination and fearlessness are an inspiration to us all,” Ms Roche said.

“Tom has dedicated his life and career to being a champion of equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, lighting the path towards reconciliation.”