THE new Young Tasmanian of the Year Zac Lockhart wants to continue spreading the message that mental health and homelessness affect us all and that there are places to go for support.
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Mr Lockhart, 20, of Launceston, won the Young Tasmanian of the Year award at the Henry Jones Art Hotel in Hobart on Friday night.
He won the award ahead of three other finalists - a neuroscientist, disability support worker and youth ambassador - for his efforts in helping those experiencing homelessness and mental health issues.
Conservationist Jane Hutchinson was named the 2016 Tasmanian Australian of the Year for her work with the Tasmanian Land Conservancy.
Back in Launceston on Saturday, Mr Lockhart said the best way to describe the win was as "a really overwhelming surprise".
"It was about this time four years ago that I was homeless and I never thought I would get to this level," Mr Lockhart said.
Since being homeless at 16, Mr Lockhart has found a home, is studying a Diploma of Counselling and Community Services Work full-time, has his own video production company Exact Media Services, and works as a casual for Advanced Lifecare.
"I had the mindset of not giving up and being resilient and really looking at challenges as opportunities to grow and better myself," Mr Lockhart, who received support from Anglicare and the Salvation Army, said.
He said the best thing for people who were homeless was to be offered a hand up, not a hand out.
"Many places are happy to throw money at issues, but if you can give a person who is in a bad situation like that a skill or a qualification, so that they can better themselves from it, it works a lot better," he said.
Something that still remains with Mr Lockhart was an experience he had at high school.
"I had a teacher ask me about my mental illness in front of the entire class," he said.
"It was very embarrassing and really humiliated me.
"That is the sort of thing that I didn't know I could have gone and spoke up about. I didn't have anywhere I could go to say, 'hey, this is wrong and it needs to be addressed'.
"I really want other young people, who are in that sort of space, to know that there are places that they can go to get help and that I can be someone, that they can go to for support and advice."
The long-term goal for Mr Lockhart is to keep doing what he is doing.
"I just really hope that I spread the message that mental health and homelessness are issues that affect all of us, not just a small minority," he said.
"We really need to start talking about them and work on ways to fix those issues."
Other winners at the awards were Dynnyrne glaciologist Professor Ian Allison, who was named Senior Tasmanian of the Year, and Queenstown printmaker Raymond Arnold, who was awarded Tasmanian Local Hero.
All four winners are now finalists for the Australian of the Year awards, which will be announced on January 25 in Canberra.
Rodney Croome's farewell speech as Tasmanian Australian of the Year on Friday night:
The Tasmanian historian and folklorist, Karl von Stieglitz, wrote down many of the stories he heard from aged former convicts when he has a small child. One was about a Valley of Gold hidden away in the very centre of Tasmania which revealed itself but once a year, at Easter, and only to the pure of heart.
I love this tale because like the best legends it probably rests in reality: the transformation for a few days in Autumn of Tasmania's alpine forests of deciduous beech into seas of golden, dying leaves. I also like it because the link to the Resurrection of Jesus speaks to the possibility of mercy, forgiveness, refuge and new life for our convict forebears, not back in England, nor in other colony or some anonymous metropolis, but right here in their place of exile, Tasmania.
I cite it tonight because it is a reminder of the shared inheritance and destiny that binds all Tasmanians to each other and to the land.During my twelve months as Tasmanian Australian of the Year I have been constantly reminded of these ties, as well as why prejudice and ignorance should never be allowed to cut them.
I was reminded when a woman stopped me in the street to congratulate me and told a tragic tale of her gay brother who fled Tasmania in the 70s, and died of AIDS in Sydney, never having reconciled with the family and the community that shaped who he was.
I was reminded of it after I spoke at a marriage equality public meeting in Goulburn and an elderly man originally from Hobart introduced himself. In his own words he was a conservative Catholic and Liberal Party stalwart who was conflicted about allowing same-sex couples to marry. But he had driven all the way from Canberra to hear what I had to say because "we Tasmanians need to respect and listen to each other regardless of our differences”.
I was reminded of it just today when a man I hadn’t met before told me how me being named Tasmanian of the Year gave him pause to think about his own prejudices and come to a new understanding of what life must be like for gay people.
I was reminded of it when I met a teenage transgender Tasmanian who told me her story of being bullied at school and of wanting to kill herself, or leave Tasmania if she lived that long, but who decided to stay and speak out after she realised there’s hope for a place that names a gay rights advocate its citizen of the year.
I hope this evening's recipients find their year ahead as fulfilling as mine has been.
I hope you come to understand what I mean when I say being Tasmanian of the Year, in whatever category, is not something you are made. It is something you become, through interactions like the ones I have described.
And I hope you never forget the truth in the story of the Valley of Gold:
The same mountains protect us. The same fields nurture us. The same fleet rivers carry our stories to mingle with those of all humanity. And we all share the same elusive, half-remembered heart of gold.
May prejudice never again cast us asunder from these most precious things.