She's an Aboriginal elder of the stolen generation; he's a middle aged white male with Celtic roots.

Aunty Lillian Burke and Sean Connelly, co-chairs of the NAIDOC Committee in Gympie, are preparing for a busy few weeks of cultural observance and celebration.

It's a commitment that takes energy, resolve and a good dose of humour when volunteers are hard to find and entrenched social prejudice is at play.

Sean recalls the time he and Aunty Lillian were followed by police while driving to a meeting, apparently because they looked suspicious. He felt compelled to point out the irony.

"They were following an Australian of the Year nominee and the winner of a Queensland lifetime volunteering award so how dodgy could we have looked? You can google us!"

When Sean met Aunty Lillian 15 years ago, their friendship took time to warm.

Sean describes Aunty Lillian as plain speaking; she calls herself mouthy.

"Originally I didn't know how to approach Aunty but the more time I spent with her the more I felt her story needed to be told,'' he says.

"We personify reconciliation": Gympie NAIDOC co-chairs Aunty Lillian Burke and Sean Connelly. ( ABC News: Cathy Jacobs )

'I felt like a nobody'

Aunty Lillian, 69, is a Butchulla woman with Kabi Kabi connection, who only discovered her true Aboriginal heritage in 2004.

Her early life in Cherbourg was fractured when, at the age of 10, she was taken from her nana, marched to a state-run Aboriginal settlement, and forced to live in the girls' dormitory.

"We were only allowed to visit our family for six hours once a month, if we were good," says Aunty Lillian.

"We were mentally, physically and verbally abused day in and day out.

"There was no-one to nurture us. We nurtured each other. Even now we are still known amongst the Aboriginal community as the "domo girls".

"Living in that place, you were nobody. For years afterwards, I felt like I was nobody."

Her only happy memory was being part of the Cherbourg marching girls team which went to the National Championships in 1962.

Aunty Lillian with elders from Cherbourg. ( ABC News: Cathy Jacobs )

Uncovering her secret ancestry

Aunty Lillian credits her drive to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture with having finally discovered her long-buried ancestry.

At 52, with four sons, she completed a Diploma in Community Services.

After walking away from an unhappy marriage, she's dedicated her time to helping young people find work, safety and self respect.

She is Gympie State High School's adopted elder and has served as an indigenous advisor on dozens of NGO and government boards and organisations, including The Fraser Island World Heritage Area Indigenous Advisory Committee.

The island's 2014 return to its traditional Butchulla owners, and Aunty Lillian's contribution to winning its Landcare management award was, she says, "the most spiritual experience of my life".

Aunty Lillian Burke is the adopted elder of Gympie State High School. ( ABC News: Cathy Jacobs )

Sean has challenged Aunty Lillian to tell her story more widely over a decade.

"She has this unique insight, this lived experience, but not once have I ever heard her say 'poor me'," he says.

"It has come at great personal cost to her and I can see how emotionally exhausted and drained she is after she does it, but these stories are dying and people need to hear them.

"There are so few opportunities for people to understand the dark part of our history and to hear it from someone who was actually there — it's humbling."

Aunty Lillian Burke and Sean Connelly at previous NAIDOC celebrations in Gympie. ( Supplied: Sean Connelly )

'I am the walking office'

Aunty Lillian blames a life time experiencing racism, abuse and ignorance for making her suspicious and unable to let people get too close.

But she has a soft spot for Sean, who is a program manager with social support NGO United Synergies and is often with her on the frontline of community work.

"Sean sticks by me. He is true to his word," she says.

This year's NAIDOC activities in Gympie include a flag raising ceremony, a family fun day and a dinner dance — all organised by Aunty Lillian and Sean, as they have done for years.

"We don't have an office," says Aunty Lillian. "I am the office, the walking office."

But it isn't always smooth sailing.

"We argue like cats and dogs on the last day of the event and then we don't talk for a month," says Sean. "Then Auntie says we are doing it again, and we do".

Aunty Lillian Burke and Sean Connelly at previous NAIDOC celebrations in Gympie. ( Supplied: Sean Connelly )

'You'd think as a bloke I'd be drawn to uncles'

The 2018 NAIDOC theme is Because of Her We Can.

"The woman is the backbone to everything," says Auntie Lillian. "We classify the ground, the earth as our Mother. She provides for us, she clothes us, she feeds us. We go back to Mother."

"I've worked in a lot of different communities," says Sean. "It's the women who are the glue."

"You'd think as a bloke growing up in Australia I'd be drawn to the Uncles, but there's a unique quality of strength and humility I see in Aunty Lillian, after the trauma she's been through. That's what the NAIDOC theme is all about for me."

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