More than 60 prominent Indigenous Australians have urged the Government not to abandon existing Closing the Gap targets.

Delegates from every state and territory attended a special meeting in Canberra last week amid a review of the goals.

In a statement, delegates said the current, decade-old goals needed to be reviewed and retained.

The group also said new targets could include:

Eliminating racism and systemic discrimination

Eliminating racism and systemic discrimination Justice, including youth justice

Justice, including youth justice Culture and language

Culture and language Economic development

Economic development Housing

Housing Healing the damaged caused by the Stolen Generations

Tom Calma said healing historical trauma was vital. ( AAP: Lukas Coch )

ACT delegate Tom Calma said healing historical trauma was vital.

"We believe that's one of the cores to addressing health and ill health among our people, and particularly our social and emotional wellbeing," Dr Calma said.

Other attendees included co-chairman of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council Chris Sarra and Tasmanian lawyer Michael Mansell.

The rebooted agenda will be finalised in October.

"Let's learn why they didn't work and what needs to be done to make sure we get the outcomes in those target areas that we need," Dr Calma said.

Last year's annual update showed six of the seven goals were off track.

Kevin Rudd defends ambitious targets

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd established the Closing the Gap framework and said there had been signs of improvement in each area.

Mr Rudd warned against diluting existing goals.

"If there's any sign of watering down, I'll be the first one leading the charge against," he said on Friday.

"When I see people sometimes say these goals are impossible to achieve or too hard to achieve, I just see that as hauling up the white flag.

"Of course they're bloody hard — they were meant to be.

"If you've been through a couple of hundred years of Indigenous oppression in this country, we had a lot of ground to make up."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will deliver an update on the existing targets tomorrow.