Be yourself: a touch of Dylan, a lot of Alcott, Australian of the Year
Be yourself. That’s Dylan Alcott’s message, the message of the 2022 Australian of the Year. Be yourself and watch your world change.
Be yourself. That’s Dylan Alcott’s message, the message of the 2022 Australian of the Year. Be yourself and watch your world change.
“The hardest thing to understand is that it’s the easiest thing in the world to do,” Alcott tells The Australian.
“You’ve gotta believe me, mate. It changes your life.”
Alcott is speaking at Melbourne Park after reaching the final of the wheelchair quad singles at the Australian Open. He’s played at the unusually early time of 11am so he can catch an afternoon flight to Canberra for the evening’s Australian of the Year announcement. “No chance of winning it,” he laughs. “None.”
He hasn’t showered. Doesn’t have time. “A bit going on,” he grins. “Got to go. I’ve got to eat, get treatment, chuck on a suit. We’re flying to Canberra at four. The awards, ‘The winner is Patty Mills,’ then I’ll fly home.”
He’s convinced he’s making up the numbers.
“It would be epically humbling but I really don’t think it’s going to happen,” he says.
“The biggest achievement for me is just being a happy bloke with a great life. What’s an award really worth? I don’t buy into it all that much. I used to. I used to want this stuff to make myself feel worthy of able-bodied people.
“I had to win everything to prove, look at us, look at disabled people, we can do it. I’m not like that anymore. I’m just me. Awards like this shouldn’t and won’t change you. And it won’t.”
He reckons it won’t even be his most prized gong. “Do you know what the No 1 trophy people love is? The Logie,” he grins. “My Logie. I don’t know why. People come over – Wimbledon, French Open, is that a Logie? Pick it up. I reckon Australian of the Year will be behind a Logie. I don’t know how that’s possible.”
Alcott has considered skipping the ceremony in Canberra. “But I talked to my team and I was like, ‘Look, if by the very odd chance you have a win, you cannot do that on Zoom in your bedroom with bad Wi-Fi’.
“So many people with disability should have won that award over the years but haven’t. It would just be - I would never forgive myself if I didn’t go, even though I don’t think I’m going to get up. When they announce someone else’s name, I’ll listen to the speech, then just walk straight out on to a plane and come home.”
Having played great tennis, he’s asked to play hypotheticals before being whisked off to Tullamarine. What if you do win it? “I’ll be a blubbering mess,” he says. “I’ll lose it. If I won, I would be humbled, honoured, forever grateful.”
He’s not just talking about people in wheelchairs. He’s talking about anyone wishing they were someone or something else. “I was like that,” he says. “Wanted to be different. Then I thought stuff it, I’m going to let all that go. For better or worse, I’m going to be me. It’s a life-changing decision that anyone can make right now. Right this very second. Be you. That’s it. Everything changes. Your work is better. Your relationships are better. You’re happier. It’s a bloody miracle, mate.”
He keeps saying he won’t win. Then he does.
“I thought I was no chance, I got here and I saw this really good looking ramp – and I thought, ‘I might have a chance here’,” Alcott tells the Australian of the Year reception.
He tells the audience he used to hate himself for being disabled but now loved his disability. “It is the best thing that ever happened to me. It really is,” he says.
He calls for the National Insurance Disability Scheme to be fully funded and for people in power to start listening to people with experience of disabilities.
“As we start opening up from this pandemic, which is awesome, we’ve got to think about and prioritise people with disability,” he says. “Some of the most vulnerable people in our community, we’ve got to get them the vaccines and the tests and whatever else they need so they can get out there and start living their life.”
He also calls for greater representation of people with disabilities in boardrooms, universities, schools and parliament “so we get the opportunity to start living our lives just like everybody else”.
Alcott is joined by three other extraordinary winners at the Australian of the Year awards. Valmai Dempsey, 71, from Canberra is named the Senior Australian of the Year after 50 years as a leading St John’s Ambulance volunteer.
Having started volunteering as a teenager, Ms Dempsey is recognised this year for her leadership of 40 ambulance volunteers through the Black Summer fires and the pandemic.
Daniel Nour, 26, is awarded Young Australian of the Year for setting up Street Side Medics – a series of mobile clinics looking after the health of Sydney’s homeless. Despite holding a full-time job at Royal North Shore Hospital, Dr Nour rarely misses a clinic as he and 145 volunteers help homeless people with everything from cancer to HIV, diabetes to heart disease.
Shanna Whan, 47, is named Australia’s Local Hero for her work in tackling alcoholism in the NSW bush.
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