Nanna Nangala Fejo, whose story was central to former prime minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 National Apology speech to the Stolen Generations, has died aged 91.
Nanna Nangala Fejo's family has granted the ABC permission to use her image.
"She remembers her earliest childhood days living with her family and her community in a bush camp just outside Tennant Creek [in the Northern Territory]," Mr Rudd said during the speech.
"She remembers the love and the warmth and the kinship of those days long ago, including traditional dancing around the campfire at night.
"But then, sometime around 1932, when she was about four, she remembers the coming of the welfare men. Her family had feared that day, and had dug holes in the creek bank where the children could run and hide.
"What they hadn't expected was that the white welfare men didn't come alone. They brought a truck, two white men and an Aboriginal stockman on horseback.
"The kids were found. They ran for their mothers screaming, but they couldn't get away."
In the hands of Commonwealth authorities, Nanna Nangala was taken south to Alice Springs and would never see her mother again.
"Her last memory of her mother was of her crying and falling on her knees as she couldn't do anything to protect her child," Christine Fejo-King, Nanna Nangala's daughter, told ABC Radio Darwin on Sunday.
Ms Fejo-King said the message her mother gave to Mr Rudd when he asked her what message she would give to Australia was "how important family is, especially mothers are".
"The whole reason that she told her story was because she wanted people to understand what the Stolen Generations were about," she said.
"The lasting impact that it had on the children who were taken, the families that were left behind and the stain on this country.
"While the apology was directed to Aboriginal people, it was all about healing. It was about healing through truth-telling … to also free up non-Aboriginal Australia, because this was a stain on them as well.
"It was healing for everyone."
Ms Fejo-King said her mother would be remembered as having "a great love for her family and her people".
"Mum always taught us that we need to be kind to those around us, that we need to help people," she said.
"She modelled that through her life, and that's what [our family] have all tried to do and what we will continue to do to honour our mother and her memory."
Last year the Commonwealth announced a $378 million redress scheme for members of the Stolen Generations.
Among the causes her mother contributed to and fought for during her life, Ms Fejo-King highlighted telling the story of the Stolen Generations, keeping Aboriginal children with their families, and the Strong Women, Strong Babies, Strong Culture program that helped pregnant Aboriginal women give birth to and raise healthy children.
For that program, she was given the Australian Medical Association's Best Individual Contribution to Healthcare in Australia Award in 1998.
Nanna Nangala's son, Larrakia and Warramungu man Richard Fejo, paid tribute to his mother on social media, saying: "I will always carry you with me. Rest now mum, you have more than earned your place in heaven."
Mr Rudd also took to social media to remember Nanna Nangala.
"For those who have been part of the national apology to Indigenous Australians, you will know the story of Nanna Nangala Fejo — one of the Stolen Generations," he said.
"I told her story in the apology. Nanna Fejo passed away on Friday at the grand age of 91. Rest In peace."
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner said she was "a woman who through her grace and warmth helped the nation better understand the tragedy of the Stolen Generations".
"To members of her family right across the Northern Territory, I acknowledge your deep loss," he wrote on Facebook.
"I also give thanks for how Nanna Fejo was able to bring us all a little closer together."
