The chairman of the Northern Land Council has told the Northern Territory Supreme Court that violence against Aboriginal women is "not really terrible" under Yolngu law.

The evidence was summarised in sentencing remarks for an Aboriginal man who repeatedly stabbed a woman.

Justice Stephen Southwood sentenced John Datjirri Wunungmurra, an artist from North East Arnhem Land, to six years in prison for hitting a woman with a stick and stabbing her with a broken bottle.

Wunungmurra had been drinking in the bush with the victim near the town of Nhulunbuy.

She suffered cuts on her face, the palm of her hand, her arm, her thigh, her left breast and her armpit.

In his sentencing remarks, Justice Southwood summarised evidence from the chairman of the peak representative body for Aboriginal people in the Top End, Wali Wunungmurra.

Wali Wunungmurra told the court that under Yolngu law, violence on Aboriginal women is "not really terrible" and "you can work around it".

But he said the violence against this victim was "not okay".

Sentencing John Datjirri Wunungmurra to jail, Justice Stephen Southwood said women in Aboriginal communities were entitled to be safe from such "violently oppressive" conduct.