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On 26 January every year - which marks the 1788 landing of Britain's First Fleet in Sydney Cove - two competing stories about Australia are told.

One is of nation-building and achievement; the other is of the displacement and dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

While many Indigenous Australians protest or sit the day out, this year Dennis Kickett is co-hosting a celebration like few others.

"I imagine I'll cop some flak," says the Noongar elder. "But I don't see the date as a barrier."

For the first time, his community of York near Perth will combine three days of Indigenous storytelling with the annual Australia Day festivities. It will include a BBQ with traditional bush tucker and the raising of Australian and Aboriginal flags to welcome new citizens.

Mr Kickett's aim is to use the gathering to explain what happened on 26 January.

"For us to move forward we all have to acknowledge the past. We live in the same community, and we're all striving for the same things," says the 70-year-old, who made the decision with fellow Ballardong traditional owners.

"There's no point segregating ourselves.