1. Author, engineer, activist, rev-head and Youth Without Borders founder Yassmin Abel-Magied.
2. Young Australian of the Year finalist Tarang Chawla: gender equality advocate, violence against women campaigner, survivor, proud wearer of pink tees.
3. Pop art fashionista and jewellery designer extraordinaire Stav Adameitis, aka Frida Las Vegas.
4. Mental health advocate, ocean enthusiast, occupational therapist, One Wave co-founder, lover of life and Mal's mate: Mr Joel Pilgrim, dead set legend.
5. Gunai / Kurnai, Gunditjmara, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman, writer Nayuka Gorrie: "rly hot and smart and funny and interesting". Very smart, very funny, very angry.
6. Sukhdeep Singh, aka L-FRESH the Lion, western-Sydney hip-hop star rapping about racism and prejudice. "FRESH" = Forever Rising Exceeding Sudden Hardships. 🎤
7. Murri / Maori Sydney activist, writer, dance maker, choreographer and all round fucking positivist Amrita Hepi.
8. Bundjalung / Wiradjuri choreographer, dancer, actor, puppeteer, composer and total rude boy Thomas E.S. Kelly.
9. Absolute goddess Shannon Dooley, creator of "the original authentic 1980s freestyle aerobic workout" Retrosweat.
10. Seventh generation West Australian Archibald finalist Abdul Abdullah, who has become "increasingly political in his art practice to keep pace with the politicisation of his cultural identity." 🎨
11. Jordan Raskopoulos, comedian, sketch and stand-up artist, actor, singer, improviser and voice-over artist, best known as the co-creator and front-woman of The Axis Of Awesome.
12. Australian Poetry Slam Champion Zohab Zee Khan. Glastonbury! Fuckin' epic areas champ.
13. Gunai / Kurnai man, Blacktivist, climate justice campaigner, musician and DJ Paul Gorrie, who is blowing shit up.
14. Tourism Australia social lead and koala fan Jesse Desjardins – aka the guy who built the biggest country social media audience on Earth! 🐨
15. Arab-Australian human rights and refugee advocate Sara Saleh, who launched her debut poetry collection, did massive amounts of good, and still found time to sit on the Getup board.
16. Futurist, explorer and experimental philosopher Eddie Harran, aka Dr Time, who helps create safe spaces for people to think about the nature of time. ⏳
For more Best of 2016 content, click here!
Disclosure: all the people featured participated in Junket, an un-conference in Canberra the author attended as a guest of Junkee Media.