This year's NAIDOC Week theme is Voice. Treaty. Truth. But the truth is that many Indigenous people feel voiceless when it comes to expressing where Australia stands on treaty today.

Key points: Indigenous Australians have a long history of intertribal treaties, with more than 500 nations across the country traditionally observing protocols for each other's land

Indigenous Australians have a long history of intertribal treaties, with more than 500 nations across the country traditionally observing protocols for each other's land Significant landmarks have long been used as visual tools to maintain order between groups upholding treaties

Significant landmarks have long been used as visual tools to maintain order between groups upholding treaties For some Indigenous elders, a treaty is less important than Australians knowing who the country's first people were

The issue of a treaty has been on the agenda since 1988 when the Northern and Central Land Councils presented the late former prime minister Bob Hawke with the Barunga statement.

The statement asked the government to recognise the rights of Aboriginal Australians by introducing a treaty.

At that point a policy was adopted to support a treaty between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the Australian Government, but so far no treaty has eventuated.

With more than 500 nations across the country, Indigenous Australians have a long and rich history of intertribal treaties.

Intertribal treaties facilitated both respect between clans, and protocols to adhere to when establishing who had authority over that particular country.

The view that a national treaty is well overdue is held by many across Australia but some New South Wales south coast residents believe a treaty won't change anything.

What they want is to be recognised as Australia's first nations people.

Indigenous artist and teacher of Indigenous cultural arts Warwick Keen said Aboriginal people "always had respect for other people's land when they crossed over into someone's territory".

"Ensuring that the protocols were adhered to entitled them to do that. That was intertribal treaty," Mr Keen said.

"From 1777 onwards there was none of that."

Warwick Keen with one of his artworks responding to the impacts of colonisation. ( ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss )

Mr Keen, who has been living in the Shoalhaven region for 11 years, identifies as a Gomeroi man whose first language is Gamilaraay.

He said that for most of his life, he was a "perfect example" of how to assimilate, becoming the person that the government policies demanded of him by the age of 10.

"I lived my life in accordance with that because I believed in what the government was saying. I believed my schoolteachers, police, magistrates and government officials," Mr Keen said.

Now in his 60s, Mr Keen recognises Indigenous ways of viewing the world and has mixed feelings about how the nation's first people would benefit from a treaty.

He stresses that his opinions are his own and says in general he isn't interested in politics. Instead he chooses to express himself through his artwork.

"As far as treaty goes I guess it would build up acknowledgement and recognition but if people are going to talk about doing these things there's got to be sincerity otherwise it is just pie-in-the-sky really," he said.

Sharing stories so we can all look after country

Like most clan groups from across the country, the Yuin nation's Budawang people respect the dreamtime stories of significant landmarks in their region.

Balgan, re-named by Captain James Cook as Pigeon House Mountain, has long been used as a visual tool to maintain lore (law) and order between tribes maintaining treaties.

Balgan, or Pigeon House Mountain, is behind Meroo National Park on NSW's south coast. ( ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale )

"We can see that mountain anywhere while we are in country," said Yuin elder and historian Noel Butler.

"If we can't see that mountain well, we're out of country and we are probably in trouble because we have to ask permission to go to somebody else's country like the Dharawal mob," he said.

It's a sentiment that resonates up and down the coastline as dreamtime stories taught Indigenous Australians how to treat each other equally using geographical features, which provide rules on how to live well with people from their own country, and neighbouring tribes with whom they have treaties.

Noel Butler is a Yuin elder, storyteller, historian and bush tucker specialist. ( ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss )

Black history was a hidden history

Dharawal elder Lorraine Brown, an artist at Coomaditichie United Aboriginal Corporation in Port Kembla, believes a treaty won't change anything.

"To me a treaty would not make any difference. The only acknowledgement that people need to realise is that we were the first people here," she said.

"The American Indians, the Canadian Indians, the Maoris, they all signed treaties but it never really changed much."

Ms Brown thinks a treaty is way overdue and doesn't claim to know what others in her community think, but suggests that fighting for change is what Aboriginal people do.

Narelle Thomas and Lorraine Brown designed the logo for ABC Illawarra's acknowledgement of country plaque. ( ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss )

"Whether we have a treaty of not it won't make any difference to me. As a black person, an Aboriginal woman, I feel very strong about that," she said.

"There's a lot of people in the country who know our people were the first people here and acknowledge that, but there are still people who think Captain Cook landed here first, before us.

"As people come in, new generations of people, new cultures of people, it's something that must be known, acknowledged: that we were the first people of this country.

"To me that's an acknowledgement that all people must know because don't forget our black history was a hidden history."

Ms Brown said people needed to understand the history to understand the struggle.

In a statement, Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt said the Government was committed to recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution: