Wiradjuri woman Lynette Riley has been "blown away" by the international interest in her Indigenous acknowledgement, sung from the public gallery of the Australian Parliament, to welcome her long-time friend Linda Burney as the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Lower House.

At the same time she is looking forward to a time when Indigenous welcomes are so commonplace they are no longer newsworthy.

The nation's Federal Parliament is no stranger to ceremony, but none so ancient as the Wiradjuri song that heralded the entry of the first Indigenous woman in the Lower House.

As Ms Burney delivered her first speech last week, the call and response rang out across the cavernous chamber.

The singer stood in the public gallery, a place usually reserved for quiet seated observance and off limits to the press.

But the Speaker of the Lower House made an exception so that Lynette Riley — a Wiradjuri Gamilaroi woman — could give a traditional Indigenous welcome and ensure Linda Burney was "sung into her seat" according to Indigenous tradition and protocol.

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Ms Riley rose in the public gallery, where even pen and paper is banned lest it be used to send messages or projectiles, clothed in a kangaroo skin cloak.

The song and the speech would soon become a worldwide viral phenomenon watched and shared by hundreds of thousands of people.

"What I'm doing in that acknowledgement is I'm introducing who I am as an Aboriginal person, my nation, my clan, my family connections," Ms Riley later explained.

"Traditionally what would happen is when people get together for the first time, what they have to do is say 'this is who I am'.

"In the context of Linda being in Parliament, what we're doing is saying, 'this is who we are, we're of the Wiradjuri nation, this is who I am as a person, now tell me who you are'."

While Ms Riley sang, with her daughter by her side, silence blanketed the green amphitheatre.

Since the speech there has been an outpouring of support for Ms Burney and for Indigenous Australians.

Some from countries like Canada expressed disbelief that the historic election of an Indigenous woman to the Australian Parliament had taken until 2016.

Ms Riley said the power of the speech and of Ms Burney's election to Parliament must not be underestimated.

"To know that we have somebody of her calibre, but also that we have Aboriginal people who are going into parliament and representing us. People get to see us as people and not as stereotypes and stories that they've heard," she said.

The messenger bird

Linda Burney MP, tells the story of her kangaroo skin cloak in maiden speech at Parliament House. ( ABC News: Adam Kennedy )

The outline of the sulphur crested cockatoo was burned freehand into the kangaroo skin cloak worn by Ms Burney as she began the speech.

The white cockatoo is her totem — the messenger bird.

She has been given that totem within Wiradjuri Indigenous culture because she is the messenger, representing her electorate, her clan and Indigenous Australians in Parliament.

Ms Riley made the cloaks, for herself, Linda and her supporters in the public gallery.

Ms Riley's cloak was designed to honour Pearl Gibbs, one of the most important female Indigenous activists in the 20th century who championed Aboriginal civil rights.

While she has been blown away by the support and the interest, she said she was looking forward to a time when Indigenous welcomes were so commonplace they were no longer newsworthy.

The warrior spirit

Ms Burney paid tribute to the history of the Wiradjuri people in that first speech.

"The Aboriginal part of my story is important, it is core to who I am," she told the Parliament.

"The story of invasion and conquest for the Wiradjuri is a brutal one."

"The deadly art of poisoning flour and watering holes began with the Wiradjuri and massacre sites are dotted all over Wiradjuri lands, their scars still evident.

"In 1823 martial law was declared in Bathurst … four months later 1,000 Wiradjuri were no more, their deaths sanctioned murder.

"In 1842, during the second Wiradjuri wars, one horror saw all but one young boy slaughtered when settlers opened fire on a group taking shelter on an island amongst the reeds in the a creek off the Murrumbidgee river.

"That creek is now known as Poison Waterhole Creek and their sheltering place as Murdering Island.

"Scars as much on our national landscape as on our national soul."

The new MP suggested adopting the practise of the New South Wales Parliament, by hanging the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flag in the Lower House chamber.

"I think this chamber too would be greatly enhanced with the addition of the red, yellow, black, green and blue of the First Peoples," she said.

"I will say that I intend to bring that Wiradjuri fighting spirit into this place, for the people of Barton, for the First Peoples, and for those great Labor values of social justice and equality for all people."