Aunty Ena Sam and her daughter Colleen have safeguarded the stories and knowledge of their people for years.
Growing up in Camooweal, on the border of Queensland and the Northern Territory, Aunty Ena remembers her elders passing down knowledge to her and her siblings.
"My siblings and I grew up at a compound, my mum and dad worked all their lives," she told AAP.
"That's where my elders told us, me and my siblings, those stories."
The Sam family moved to Brisbane in the 1980s, and when Aunty Ena had her own children, she would tell them the same stories.
"With my kids, I used to tell them the stories at night, the same way I was taught," she said.
"As soon as the sun went down, I used to make all the kids sit down and listen."
It was in the 90s that Aunty Ena started sketching the stories, and later Colleen Sam would bring them to life through paintings.
These stories of survival, resilience and strength are now on display at Queensland's State Library, after decades of being held in secrecy.
The stories include accounts of massacres, Kalkadoon resistance and frontier battles, following the Sam family's survival from first contact through to the 1900s, all the while passing down their stories.
"They did all that in secret, through the whole protection era, going through the different phases of assimilation, slavery, so part of their story is talking about strength," curator Serene Fernando said.
For Colleen Sam, sharing her family stories through the Unbroken Spirit of the Kalkadoons exhibition comes naturally.
"It's us continuing our responsibilities," she said.
"We've never left it behind and we've never put it down.
"The continuation of our culture is very important, for the survival of our Country and our people."
With the repeal of Queensland's Path to Treaty legislation and the failure of the voice referendum, the sometimes hard-hitting exhibition is a timely way for Australians to engage with the truth of their history, Ms Fernando said.
"It does have the full brunt of colonial violence and what it's like to go through war, and survival," she said.
"Not only do you get the full onslaught of war but enslavement and entrapment and policies that control your life.
"There's a whole understanding and perspective that you can grapple with and see through this exhibition, through the historical artworks and paintings and the oral histories that are in the space."
But at the heart of the exhibition is culture - indeed, this is what Aunty Ena and Colleen say has kept their family and people strong for generations.
"That's what we carry, and that's what's been instilled in us," Colleen said.
"My people were set upon when they first met with European invaders, colonisers, but it's a bigger story."
The Unbroken Spirit of the Kalkadoons exhibition will be at the Queensland State Library until August 24.
