Kyle Shilling is still on a high after his Dancing with the Stars win.
After weeks of performances, he danced his way to the grand finale and delivered a powerful final performance with his partner, Lily.
The Home and Away star, who is a proud Widjubal man of the Bunjalung Nation, explored his heritage and identity in his routine.
“In this day and age, there is so much happening around the world, and a lot of people tend to forget what’s happening in their own backyard,” he exclusively told New Idea.
“And it was nice to shed some light on that, it’s all about the track of who you are as a human being culturally, ethnicity, historically, and it was in a sense about this displacement of being a First Nations person.”
He explained that his costume represented earth, and Lily’s was water.
“The significance behind that is how water and earth help replenish each other and continue the regrowth and the sustainability of live on, and I guess what that has to say, these two opposites work as found in hand, and as human beings we have the exact same abilities to do so, it’s about one thing and acceptance.”
Throughout the competition, the couple incorporated elements from Kyle’s Indigenous culture in their routines, which he said was “very special”.
While Kyle has a dancing background, with training from the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association, the competition proved to be much harder than he expected.
“I’ve seen ballroom and Latin and compared to what I used to do… then going into it, realising how demanding it is on the body, like everything from the frame, and the position of the feet had to be correct,” he explained.
It also didn’t help that he pulled his calf in rehearsals.
“Because it was in rehearsal before the actual production, it was just then grief for the whole series,” he said.
In the grand finale, he was up against Brittany Hockley, Trent Cotchin, Felicity Ward, Michael Usher and Shaun Micallef.
In the first round, Brittany and Trent scored 35 each, Michael was given 28, Felicity got 33, Shaun got 37, and Kyle got a perfect score of 40 out of 40.
It was his second perfect score in the competition.
Kyle and Shaun then advanced to the next round, which was determined by votes.
Along with the trophy, the Home and Away star has also won $20,000 for his chosen charity, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
“I’ve been to communities where English is not their first language and sometimes it’s not even their second, it can be their third language, depending on the situation between neighbouring tribal groups and the languages,” he explained.
“And bringing that to the children that haven’t been given the correct packages for learning school, because one is the huge communication barrier. And the ILF will be able to support and fund the correct learning packages and the communities.”
