Blak History Month:Patty Mills — the kid from Canberra who conquered the world.

Patty Mills picked up a basketball at four years old, playing for a little Indigenous club his parents started in Canberra called "The Shadows." From those humble beginnings, he went on to do something no one in this country had ever done.

But before the trophies, there's a deeper story...and it matters.

Patty's father, Benny, is a Torres Strait Islander. His mother, Yvonne, is an Aboriginal woman of the Kokatha people. As a child, Yvonne was forcibly removed from her family as part of the Stolen Generations. Patty has said that learning of his mother's past was a turning point in understanding who he was as an Indigenous Australian.

And here's a connection that ties a lot of our recent stories together. Patty Mills is the great-nephew of Eddie Koiki Mabo — the very same man whose landmark High Court case overturned terra nullius. Resistance, strength and leadership run deep in that family.

Now to the basketball. Because wow.

In 2014, Patty became an NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs. He went on to become the first Indigenous Australian to compete at five Olympic Games. And at the Tokyo Olympics, he made history as the first Indigenous Australian to carry the flag at an Opening Ceremony.

Then came the moment nobody will forget. In the Tokyo bronze-medal game against Slovenia, Patty scored a tournament-high 42 points to lead the Boomers to their first ever Olympic basketball medal. A nation that had waited decades — and he carried them there on his shoulders.

But here's what makes Patty Mills a genuine hero, not just a great athlete.

He donated his entire NBA salary from the 2020 season to Black Lives Matter Australia, Black Deaths in Custody, and an anti-racism campaign. And during COVID lockdown, he and his wife dragged a mattress into the lounge room and got to work building Indigenous Basketball Australia — a program creating opportunities for young First Nations kids.

His dream? That a young Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander kid he's helping today might one day play for Australia at the Brisbane 2032 home Olympics.

That's what he thinks about. Not himself. The kids coming up behind him.

From "The Shadows" in Canberra to NBA champion, Olympic history-maker and tireless advocate for his people — Patty Mills shows our young mob exactly what's possible.

Dream big this week. Someone from a small club a long way from anywhere once did — and look where it took him.