Varied career for 2015 NT Aust of the Year

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks has been everything from an actor to a nun to an outspoken advocate for indigenous people.

But the Northern Territory's 2015 Australian of the Year says the proudest achievement of her life has been her daughter, Ngarla.

"I think the miracle is that I have a child," she told AAP.

"My husband and I had only one child, to me that fulfilled me as a person."

The 78-year-old humanitarian, whose husband died three years ago, grew up on the remote NT Utopia Station.

A few years ago she returned to her birthplace from Alice Springs where she lives with Ngarla and her two granddaughters, Amelia and Ruby.

"I live within the cultural context of who I am, with three ladies who are powerful, independent thinkers."

They have a strong role-model in Ms Kunoth-Monks who, as a teenager, starred in the classic Australian film Jedda.

Asked if she still recalls that time, she laughs: "I'm not senile, I'm very robust, I remember Jedda vividly", saying it exposed her to white people.

For a decade she was a nun in Melbourne, before setting up the first Aboriginal hostel in Victoria, then settling in Alice Springs with her husband and becoming involved in social work and politics.

She's also been a government adviser, an interpreter, an environmental campaigner and had roles on boards and councils devoted to Indigenous issues.

One of the changes she's seen for her people has been their achievements in areas such as academia, where they've done it without being assimilated to the extent of losing their identity.

But she says Australia still has a way to go and needs to unite as a nation, a goal which is achievable.

"I'm acutely aware historically of how Australia was settled, it was not in the peaceful manner which we'd like it to be.

"But I do not want the gulf to widen.

2015 NORTHERN TERRITORIANS OF THE YEAR

NT Australian of the Year: Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM - Humanitarian

NT Senior Australian of the Year: Eddie Robertson - Elder and community leader

NT Young Australian of the Year: Chantal Ober - community leader

NT Local Hero: Ray Palmer - veterans' champion.