But after his decades of advocating, organising, cajoling and persuading on behalf of the capital's multicultural communities, they are loud and proud and on high rotation.

Now nobody knows if they should think of Mr Manikis as a public servant, a community leader or a unique combination of both.

The retiring Canberra legend is not even sure himself, after all these years, he said on Tuesday.

"I like to think of myself as having a foot in each camp," he said.

For the record, Mr Manikis has retired, after 40 years in the public service, from his job as Director of the Community Participation Group in the Department of Community Services.

The wildly successful National Multicultural Festival, which he inaugurated in 1997, is definitely his most high profile achievement, having grown from two trestle tables at CIT in Reid into a huge event that attracted 280,000 revellers this year with 4500 volunteers, 463 stalls and nine stages.

But that is not what makes Mr Manikis, who has been with the ACT Public Service from the start, proudest.

"The multicultural communities, before self government, they didn't really have a voice," he said.

"The place was Commonwealth-run, a public service town, it was pretty white in terms of perceptions.

"But you've got to remember the magnificent Snowy Mountains Scheme and the families who came here and settled here when it finished, the public servants who had houses and roofs put over their heads by migrants, had their dinner at night-time bought through the supermarkets and restaurants run by migrants.

"So what's evolved over those 40 years is that those communities are on their feet, they've got access to government, they're organised and it's that sort of thing that I'm very proud of today."

That's not all though; when he was head of the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Mr Manikis supported the start-up of the United Ngunnawal Elders Council and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, he ran the introduction of the ACT Seniors Card and after the devastation of the 2003 bushfires he coordinated more than 80 events that raised nearly $10 million for the victims.

Throughout it all though, he says he had the same concerns that all public servants share, even if he took his own approach to life in the bureaucracy.

"I've had to service my ministers because the community speaks through them so I'm very mindful of that and I'm very mindful of the code-of-conduct that I'm paid each fortnight to be held accountable against," Mr Manikis said.

"But on the other hand, I've got a heart and we've got some vulnerable people in town and they're mostly in these population groups that I've had responsibility for and sometimes bureaucracy doesn't move quickly to address issues so I've had to push the envelope a bit."