NT Treaty Commissioner Mick Dodson has said treaties may "finally fix the relationship between our colonisers and us" while advocating greater self-determination for Indigenous communities.
Mr Dodson used a panel discussion in Sydney on Tuesday to unpack the treaty process and the current state of Indigenous relations more broadly.
"Treaties have the potential to finally fix the relationship between our colonisers and us. It is something that should have been done 230 years ago," he told the Australian Human Rights Commission's Free and Equal conference, referring to the arrival of the First Fleet and colonisation of Australia by the British in 1788.
Treaties can "contribute to reconciliation", he said.
Australia is the only Commonwealth country that does not have treaties with its First Peoples, but Victoria and Northern Territory are currently taking steps towards them.
Treaties between governments and Indigenous people can be used to recognise historic sovereignty, sacred sites, and place names, as well as historical wrongs and apologies, and to map how relationships should evolve in the future.
The former Australian of the Year also stressed Indigenous people needed far more say over their own affairs.
He said many people in government "don't have a clue what's happening on the ground" in Indigenous communities.
And as a result, many Indigenous people "don't have a clue what [national health campaign] Close the Gap is" because "they were never asked about it".
"Maybe the self-government route is the way to go."
Mr Dodson, along with fellow Indigenous panel members lawyer Teela Reid and author and academic Helen Milroy, advocated a "get out of the way" approach to let Indigenous people handle their own affairs.
The panel also discussed the need for "truth-telling".
"The colonial project ambition was to destroy us as a people ... to obliterate us," Mr Dodson said.
The colonial project ambition was to destroy us as a people. - Mick Dodson
"They invaded the place, they did not seek consent ... They dispossessed people, there was murder, rape, and pillaging."
Mr Dodson took up the role of Northern Territory Treaty Commissioner earlier this year.
When he was appointed, he said that "we as a nation must come face to face with our dark and traumatic history".
The territory is in the early stages of the treaty process and Mr Dodson is currently consulting with Indigenous people and developing a suitable framework to further treaty negotiations.
The treaty process has faced hostility along the way, with some in Coalition ranks opposing the Victorian movement previously.
Coalition MPs expressed their dissatisfaction both in state parliament and during the 2018 state election campaign, which they went on to lose.
"Our point of view ... is that a national process is far better," then-Liberal leader Matthew Guy told the ABC, saying a number of Indigenous nations in Victoria are not bound by state lines.
"Victoria is going it alone ... It does not make any sense," he said.
At Tuesday's event, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also discussed Australia's relationship with its Indigenous people.
"A treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and constitutional recognition of the First Nation people's voice in national affairs would be historic steps," she said.
"I was shocked to learn that the age of criminal responsibility in Australia is only 10 years old ... Some 600 children under the age of 14 are locked away in youth jails every year across this country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children make up almost 70 per cent of them."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people account for 27 per cent of Australia's overall prison population.
