For 60,000 years, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have called Australia home.
When Captain James Cook first landed at Botany Bay in 1770, he declared the land he saw terra nullius, meaning no ones land.
This set the foundation of European settlement based on British law.
What was regarded as colonisation from the British perspective was often seen as invasion by the First Peoples of Australia.
Patrick Dodson wears many hats as an Aboriginal leader.
The Banaga man was Australias first Aboriginal catholic priest.
He is often called the father of reconciliation with a long tenure as chair of Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and now a senator in parliament.
But in actual fact, he lived a very different life before the 1967 referendum took place.
It was a time when state laws determined where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could live, where they could travel to, whom they could marry, or whether they could be legal guardians of their children.
You grew up under this fear that someone in authority called the native protector could intervene in your life and remove you to a mission or a settlement for whatever reason. If you werent doing well at school or being mischievous or you didn't wear the right sort of clothes, you could be removed, or if you started speaking your own language, if you started to visit old people who were sitting down in the camp somewhere.
Fifty years ago an overwhelming 90.77 per cent of voters cast yes votes to include Aboriginals in the population count.
Twenty-five years later, a Meriam man named Eddie Mabo made history by winning a landmark court case where native title in Australia was recognised for the first time.
The 2014 Australian Reconciliation Barometer found that only 30 per cent of Australians are knowledgeable of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.
Meanwhile, 83 per cent are supportive of making it a compulsory subject in the school curriculum.
Didgeridoo musician Jeremy Donovan, a proud Kuku-Yalanji man, believes a lot more can be done to heal the wounds and damage suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people during over two centuries of colonisation.
The first step is education.
Yankunytjatjara woman Sandy Marty agrees that more Australians need to be educated about the histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
As acting deputy CEO of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Womens Council in Alice Springs, she sees many gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
In young people needing to be able to find a way of feeling happy in community theres a lot of problem that need addressing like employment and the health issues of people and making community sustainable that they are a good place to live in.
Sandy Marty says helping First Australians reconnect with their cultural heritage is also part of the reconciliation process.
And being able to maintain language I think language is very important for Aboriginal communities in remote regions as well as all over Australia.
In fact, support for the constitutional recognition of our First Peoples is high.
The idea is backed by both major parties and the Greens.
A 2016 poll conducted by RECOGNISE found that 77 per cent of non-Indigenous Australians and 87 per cent of Indigenous Australians would vote yes in a referendum.
Sydney Universitys constitutional expert Professor Anne Twomey says the change would either involve a symbolic recognition or an actual change in the constitution.
Several states including Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have amended their constitutions to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in a statement since 2004.
Jeremy Donovan is also supportive of constitutional recognition of the First Australians.
Patrick Dodson says we are still a long way from solving the more contentious issues between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups around the country will meet at Uluru this week to come up with a recommended model for recognition in the constitution.
***
