Gwoja Tjungurrayi: His story is one every Australian should know.

Next time you pull a $2 coin out of your pocket, take a proper look at it.

That face looking back at you? That's Gwoja Tjungurrayi. A Warlpiri-Anmatyerre loreman from the Tanami Desert. And his story is one every Australian should know.

Born around 1895, north-west of Alice Springs, Tjungurrayi lived a life that was extraordinary, brutal, dignified and quietly remarkable. He was a stockman, a station hand, a cultural custodian, a father — and a survivor of one of the darkest chapters in this country's history.

In 1928, he survived the Coniston Massacre, in which up to 70 people were brutally murdered. One son later described his father worming his way out from among the dead and dying. Another said he was captured and chained to a tree — and freed himself. He walked away from that. And he kept walking.

Then, in 1935, a chance encounter changed everything.

Photographer Roy Dunstan captured his portrait during a visit to the Northern Territory — a striking image of a man with an undeniable presence and quiet dignity. That photograph took on a life of its own. It appeared on the cover of the tourism magazine Walkabout in 1936, and then again in 1950.

He became the first living Australian — settler or Aboriginal — to be featured on a postage stamp. His name, however, wasn't even printed on it. He was simply described as "an Aborigine." Over the following years, more than 99 million stamps bearing his face were sold across Australia and around the world.

In 1988, $1 and $2 banknotes were taken out of circulation and coins were introduced.

On June 20 of that year, the Royal Australian Mint released the $2 featuring the portrait Tjungurrayi.

His face was everywhere. His name, known by almost no one.

Gwoja Tjungurrayi passed away on 28 March 1965. But his face has been in the hands of every Australian every single day since 1988 — on that little gold coin most of us barely glance at.