An advocate for victim-survivors of violence, 2025 Citizen of the Year Malika Elizabeth Reese will use her award to spread a message of kindness.
“I'll be able to use it as a platform to speak out about how important community is and how we are all connected to each other,” Malika said after the City of Wollongong Awards at City Beach Function Centre on Thursday.
“We need to be kind to ourselves and to each other. I think we are lacking a lot of self-kindness in this world at the moment.”
Born in Los Angeles, Malika has worked with the Illawarra Women's Health Centre and Women Illawarra, and is known for sharing her own trauma to help others. Malika took part in the first Australian Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Recovery and Healing Conference in Wollongong and, when she went on stage to receive her award yesterday, pinned to her shirt was a badge for the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse.
“Speaking out against child abuse and domestic violence is really important to me," Malika said, "helping to empower people to set down the shame and set yourself up, because I think shame is incredibly crippling and intergenerational trauma is rife through our society. It's so important that we are kind to ourselves and heal.”
Malika is also a singer, teacher, writer, musician, storyteller, public speaker, funeral celebrant and the leader of Tender Funerals’ Community Choir.
“I just really like being of service,” she said. “I want to use my words and my voice to make a positive difference in people's lives.”
Malika is developing ‘A Gentle Talk About Death for Little Ones’ as part of the MerrigongX artists program and looking forward to touring with ensemble show Church of the Clitori. Her next local performance will be in She'll Be Right, an International Women's Day Celebration at Port Kembla’s Servo on March 7.
Instead of a speech yesterday, Malika surprised the awards audience with a song from her standup routine. It was a comic song about bodies and attitudes that reinforced the need for self-love.
“People are kinder to strangers than they are to themselves,” Malika said. “So I say treat yourself with the kindness you might give a stranger.”
‘Icing on the cake’ of a lifetime’s work
The chair of the Multicultural Communities Council of Illawarra (MCCI) since 2001, Ken Habak OAM said being named Wollongong’s Senior Citizen of the Year was “the icing on the cake”.
“After 54 years of working, volunteering here and there and everywhere, from the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils to churches to communities to police advisory committees, to ministerial, state and federal committees, I think that was an honour,” he said.
Ken was a school teacher in Lebanon and migrated to Australia in 1970, working at BlueScope Steel until retirement in 2009. During his time as MCCI chair, the organisation has expanded to Canberra and the Shoalhaven, bringing together over 80 ethnic and culturally diverse communities. He’s won multiple awards over the years.
“My first achievement was a Volunteer of the Year award in New South Wales in 2008. Then in 2010, I was honoured with an OAM, and in 2017 I was honoured with the [NSW Premier’s] Human Rights Medal and tonight, this is the icing on the cake.”
Ken has been with MCCI for 24 years and is planning to retire at the AGM in November. But before then he’ll be celebrating the multicultural council’s 50th anniversary and the launch of a book about its history by CEO Chris Lacey during Harmony Week in March.
Young Citizen of the Year
Mental health first aid instructor Jack Brown, who founded suicide prevention charity Talk2mebro after losing his cousin to suicide in 2018, was named 2025's Young Citizen of the Year.
Jack was unable to attend the presentation, but sent a letter of thanks to his family for being “so supportive during my dark times and times of struggle”.
“Thanks to everyone in the Talk2mebro organisation,” Jack wrote. “This is our award as a team."
Wollongong’s ‘secret sauce’
Wollongong Lord Mayor Tania Brown said the quality of 2025’s nominations was both “outstanding and inspirational”.
“The success and vibrancy of Wollongong is built by those who dedicate their skills and time in support of others,” she said. “They create opportunities for our city to grow. They enable our community to engage and experience different ideas and ways of looking at the world.
“Just this morning I was at an event in Sydney, where we launched the latest city investment prospectus … but what's not written in the fine print is the secret sauce that makes our community so special. And it's found in the 85 nominees and organisations who work behind the scenes supporting our community.”
‘Huge’ demand for Need a Feed
The Community Group of the Year award attracted the most nominations of all 11 categories and this year the honour went to local charity Need a Feed, which helps those facing hardship by providing shared meals and connections.
Need a Feed founder Shaz Harrison said the first thing she was going to do was share the award with her volunteers.
“Without them, we can't do what we do,” Shaz said.
“We're going to put this [certificate] up at Community Connection Lunch, take it into the Breakfast Buddies, and show everyone there and all the volunteers.”
Shaz said while she was thrilled, one of the nicest accolades came earlier in the day at Need a Feed’s weekly Thursday meal at Northern Illawarra Uniting Church.
“One of our lunch guests today said, ‘You are already the community group of the year.' I thought, that's gold.”
Amid the cost of living crisis, Shaz has seen “huge” demand for Need a Feed’s services.
“We have a big fundraiser coming up in September. It's called the Need a Feed Swim Challenge. We are fundraising for a mobile food truck so we can reach more areas of the Illawarra. So people who can't come to us, we can go and meet them where they are physically and mentally.”
Muralist who captured the zeitgeist
The Lord Mayor’s Award for excellence went to Sarah Rowan, the speed painter who created a public mural of Olympic gold medallist Saya Sakakibara and her brother Kai in Helensburgh during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Tania Brown said: “I felt that Sarah really captured, with that mural, the excitement that all of us felt for our local athletes and to see all of Helensburgh come out and celebrate Saya Sakakibara – it just captured the zeitgeist, so well done Sarah.”
“I am beyond honoured,” said Sarah, who is thrilled with the additional commissions that have followed her mural of the BMX champs. “It's really put me on the map.”
Sarah has another five murals in the works, including a memorial mural for an Albion Park teenager that she’s creating in collaboration with his friends.
Light in dark times
The volunteer-run Clifton School of Arts (CSA) won the 2025 Arts and Cultural Achievement Award.
CSA president David Roach said the award would not only lift the group’s spirits but boost their publicity. The Northern Illawarra cultural hub is fundraising for a much-needed extension to its heritage building, built in 1911.
“It really helps to have this sort of official recognition,” David said.
“Just to be in this room, with these people is an incredible honour. One of the things that I think about is that, with all the stuff that's going on in the world today, there's so much darkness around – and if you are looking for light, it's here. It's here with these people.
“It's in your local community.”
The City of Wollongong Awards honours list
Read more about the winners in this release from Wollongong City Council.
- Citizen of the Year: Malika Elizabeth Reese
- Young Citizen of the Year: Jack Brown, Talk2mebro
- Senior Citizen of the Year: Ken Habak OAM
- Community Group of the Year: Need a Feed
- Arts and Cultural Achievement Award: Clifton School of Arts
- Diversity and Inclusion Award: Kristy Thomas
- Environmental Achievement Award: Karlie Zec
- Innovation Achievement Award: Robofit
- Rising Star Award: Jurni Young
- Sports Achievement Award: Rod Broad
- Wollongong to the World: Hysata
- Lord Mayor’s Award: Sarah Rowan
