A new representative body for Indigenous people is expected to be a key demand to emerge from a national gathering at Uluru.

Hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been discussing constitutional change this week and will deliver a statement of their findings today.

Tasmanian delegate Michael Mansell said there was "universal support" at the Uluru gathering for a federally-funded Aboriginal representative body.

"Everybody has agreed, constitutional recognition or not, we definitely need a national Aboriginal body that is funded by the Federal Government and elected by Aboriginal people," Mr Mansell said.

"We have to have the capacity to be able to bring about change."

Cape York leader Noel Pearson strongly backed the idea of a national representative body, calling it long overdue.

"We need our own national Indigenous voice," Mr Pearson said.

Dancers perform at the opening ceremony of the summit at Uluru. ( ABC News: Stephanie Zillman )

"It'll be a political voice. In order to have good policy and good laws enacted by the parliament, Indigenous peoples need to have a say. They need to have a national voice in our democratic system."

Mr Pearson argued it should be embedded in a way that ensured it could not just be arbitrarily scrapped as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission was by the Howard government.

"We have gone more than a decade now without any voice in our own affairs and I think that has really compounded our problems and our predicament," Mr Pearson said.

He advocated constitutional change to help overcome Indigenous disadvantage.

"All of the parlous social misery of our people is linked to our structural powerlessness," Mr Pearson said.

Mr Mansell said some Indigenous representatives were opposed to constitutional recognition because it was seen as symbolic and not delivering "the goods on the ground".

"People are saying we want antenatal support in remote communities and we are not getting it, so why are we talking about constitutional recognition?" Mr Mansell said.

He said many delegates wanted the meeting to result in significant change to the constitution, such as the insertion of an anti-discrimination clause, rather than simply including Indigenous recognition.

Mr Mansell outlined backing from some groups for designated seats for Indigenous people in Federal Parliament.

A small minority of the delegates walked out of the talks yesterday, saying they would not return. ( ABC News: Bridget Brennan )

"Some people haven't got land, some people haven't got any resources. People are talking about designated seats in the parliament to get some sort of empowerment of the community."

He said many delegates wanted a treaty, but even more wanted a package including all the proposed measures.

Mr Mansell said if the Uluru summit called for changes that go further than anticipated by Federal Parliament, it could still be workable.

"We can sit down and negotiate with the delegates who are chosen and try and find an outcome, find common ground and as a result of that, Aboriginal people will feel things have turned around a bit for the first time in 20 years," he said

Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion said an Indigenous recognition question that would fail should not be put to a referendum.

Senator Scullion said a failed attempt at constitutional recognition would put the relationship back a long way, but he did not rule out some form of treaty, and said he was looking carefully at negotiations in South Australia and Victoria.

"The matter of treaty has always been brought up," Senator Scullion said.

"The South Australian treaty process, we are watching very closely.

"It is very easy to have a treaty at a local government level, bit harder at a state level, very complex to have one with a nation, but we should be prepared to listen to a variety of these arguments."