EXCLUSIVE: The Home and Away actor opens up about his powerful performance.
Dancing With The Stars' Kyle Shilling and his dance partner Lily Cornish.

Kyle Shilling and his dance partner Lily Cornish won this year’s season of Dancing With The Stars. Photo: Channel 7

It’s been quite a historic 48 hours for the Home and Away cast. Not only did Lynne McGranger become the oldest person to win the Gold Logie at the 65th Annual TV WEEK Logie Awards, but her co-star Kyle Shilling became the first Indigenous person to win Dancing With The Stars.

Kyle, a proud Widjabul man from the Bundjalung Nation, took home the mirrorball trophy in Monday night’s grand finale alongside his dance partner, Lily Cornish. He tells Yahoo Lifestyle following the win that he’s feeling “over the moon” about the historic result, and he couldn’t be prouder.

“I was the first main role Indigenous actor on Home and Away, and if I’m the first Indigenous winner for Dancing With The Stars, it’s just another notch in my belt that I’m very, very proud of,” he shares.

For his final performance in the competition, Kyle honoured his First Nations culture with a powerful freestyle routine and played the didgeridoo on stage. He received a perfect score from the judges, with Helen Richey admitting it was one of the best performances she had ever seen on the show, and enormous praise on social media.

“I think anybody who has the chance to represent and perform their culture on such a big stage, it’s always special to us,” he says. “Even performing our culture in small communities is special to us, but to have been given this opportunity and to take out the mirrorball [trophy] following this performance that we got to perform has been absolutely amazing.

“It’s something that I hold close to myself and something I’m going to look back on for years and years to come. I think this moment is something I’m going to be very proud of for myself and my culture.”

Watch Kyle Shillings’ grand finale performance here:

Similar to other star-studded reality shows, Dancing With The Stars’ champions win money for their chosen charity.

Kyle’s victory raises funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, which provides access to books and literacy programs for Indigenous children and allows them to have a proper education growing up.

Meanwhile, it was leaked earlier in the season that Kyle was reportedly paid $27,000 to take part in the competition. This is compared to his co-stars Rebecca Gibney, Osher Günsberg, and Shaun Micallef, who were all rumoured to be earning $100,000 for their appearance on the Channel 7 reality show.