The 19-year-old young indigenous leader will spend his first Christmas away from his family on the Antarctic icecaps.

Mr Holloway-Clarke will be one of five young indigenous Australians to join 23 mentors on the inaugural 17-day Outback to Icecap Indigenous Youth Leadership Expedition.

On his first international journey, he is looking forward to being out on the ice for Christmas.

‘‘For reasons other than Christmas it is a pretty family time of year for us so I will be missing that, but at the same time it’s really a step out into the unknown and it’s going to be an amazing adventure,’’ he said.

‘‘I think I will do better than mum will ... [but] mum totally wants me to do this.

‘‘My involvement [in the expedition] is thanks to Yalari Limited who are an education non-for-profit organisation and provide boarding scholarships for indigenous students.

‘‘I was one of their students and that’s how I attended Scotch Oakburn College.

‘‘It was through my ongoing connection with them that they partnered with the leadership group, with Peter Bland to set up this trip.’’

Mr Holloway-Clarke is unsure if he will be able to call home to give his family a Christmas cheer.

‘‘Fortunately there is a Ukrainian base camp where we will be and they have pretty solid connectivity, but of course we are on a Russian icebreaker, so hopefully we can all be friends,’’ he said.

‘‘We have a Kris Kringle so we all have a present to buy someone while we are over there.’’

The crew leaves Australia on Monday for a 16-hour flight to Peru on route to Buenos Aires, where they will spend six days attending workshops in leadership communication and attend a function at the Australian Embassy.

From the Argentine capital the group will move to Ushuaia, at the bottom point of the South American peninsula, where they will travel aboard a Russian icebreaker to Antarctica.

Weather depending, they will arrive on the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Christmas Eve.

The group has been on two camps at Mount Macedon in Victoria to mentally prepare them for what they are likely to face on the cold desert landscape.

The expedition is designed to develop personal growth, self-confidence and resilience in indigenous youth.

‘‘We are in Antarctica for four days and we will be doing a combination of kayaking, climbing up a 100-metre cliff, snow-walking and we will be camping out on the ice as well,’’ Mr Holloway-Clarke said.

‘‘While we are over there, there are going to be people that are tired, jet-lagged, cranky, that have fallen in the water and cold and just don’t want to be there.

‘‘It is about building confidence and acknowledging our own expertise and abilities.

‘‘I’ve done quite a bit of climbing and outdoor stuff before so I have been asked to take a leadership position and help instruct other people how to do their knots when we go climbing and how to set up their tents and stuff.

‘‘You find a lot of wisdom in places you don’t expect it and one of the things Peter is big on is getting not only us proficient in stuff but able to teach others.’’

Adventurer Peter Bland and expedition organiser was the first Australian to walk both the North and South poles and has overcome many adversaries, including the injuries he suffered falling down a 14-storey crevasse.

Mr Holloway-Clarke said Mr Bland’s life story was inspiring and that he saw him as an amazing life mentor for what he wanted to achieve.

He is studying arts – doing a double in history and philosophy – at the University of Melbourne with the hope to enter the Juris Doctor post-graduate law program to be lawyer.

‘‘Hopefully I’ll find a niche [in law] in which I excel and I’ll be able to apply that in a really constructive way for not only my own family but for a lot of indigenous Australians,’’ he said.

‘‘If I choose to do criminal law, I’d like to be part of the public defence teams that work from remote and rural communities and with taxation and property law.

‘‘Hopefully I can utilise whatever field of law I go into to helping out indigenous Australians.’’

Mr Holloway-Clarke arrives back in Tasmania on January 3.