Wiradjuri elder Aunty Narelle Boys backs the Voice to Parliament

"[The Voice to Parliament] means to me a future where my grandkids and their kids can let people know what they think," she said.

"We just want people to be able to hear what we say, hear our stories. We do have a lot of information to share and I think it needs to be heard.

"When I was growing up, it didn't happen, our people had no voice."

Voters will head to the polls on October 14 to decide whether the constitution should be changed to "recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice".

Aunty Narelle said she supports the Voice as it would ensure younger generations of Indigenous people have a say on issues impacting their communities and their people.

Growing up in the 1940s and 50s, the prominent Dubbo elder remembers a time before Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were officially included in the Australian population.

The effect of this exclusion from Commonwealth law was that states were free to implement "assimilationist" policies that resulted in Aboriginal peoples' dispossession, oppression and alienation.

"You're talking about the days too when work was for flour, sugar and tea. Any payments went to the property owners and mission managers and all this," Aunty Narelle said, when asked about her recollection of the time.

But there was an appetite for change and "a lot of it came out of Dubbo", Aunty Narelle said.

Her grandfather was Dubbo local William Ferguson, who founded the Aboriginal Progressive Association, led protests and the 1938 National Day of Mourning and went on to become one of the most important Aboriginal rights activists in Australian history.

It was his activism, in part, which led to the 1967 referendum, when Australia voted to change the constitution so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be counted as part of the Australian population.

A resounding 90.77 per cent said 'Yes' and every single state and territory had a majority 'Yes' vote.

"It conjures up thinking what would have been without it ... Education and living standards and all those things that people just take for granted, and that referendum changed it," Aunty Narelle said.

"We saw from that referendum that a lot of people were on our side as well. And that made us stronger."

Asked whether she thought the Voice could make a difference to the community in the same way the 1967 referendum did, Aunty Narelle said she hoped so.

"It's a heavy burden to carry because you're speaking for mob, you know? You're talking about people that had less rights than dogs at one stage," she said.

"There's a lot of water under this bridge because I remember when we had no voice. So why wouldn't I want the future to have a Voice and want our kids and our grandkids to have a voice and be able to speak out.

"I wish for them that they take up the baton that has been thrown down by their people and pick it up and run with it."

It's a tough road ahead for the 'Yes' campaign, with recent polling showing support for the Voice had slipped to less than 40 per cent.

A number of high-profile Indigenous people from Dubbo - including Bundjalung man Nyunggai Warren Mundine and Wiradjuri elder Riverbank Frank Doolan - have also backed the 'No' campaign.

While she will be voting 'Yes', Aunty Narelle said she respects everyone's right to make their own decision.

"Everyone's got their own individual idea and they're entitled to that. You can't take that away from anyone, black, white or green. I can only speak to what I believe," she said.

"We're all individuals and we all have a brain and we use it the way we see fit."

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