An Aboriginal watchdog will have oversight of a NSW government strategy to help Indigenous children progress from school to work.
The $11 million-a-year, statewide strategy announced on Friday provides Indigenous children with a pathway from preschool to high school, and then from university or TAFE into jobs.
An Independent Aboriginal Council, made up of five Indigenous people, will monitor and report on its progress to parliament and advise the government on strategic issues.
"Since the first boatload of illegal immigrants to this country, this is the first time a government in this state has tried to enter into a real partnership with our mob," said Stephen Ryan, chair of the Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations.
"We will have a watchdog, we hope it is a quasi-Aboriginal ombudsman trying to keep governments honest."
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The council will be headed by a coordinator-general with the power to obtain information from different government agencies to ensure the initiatives are on track.
Five endangered Aboriginal languages will be taught as the centrepiece of the policy, with selected communities offering "language and culture nests" and hubs linking Aboriginal school students to industry, training and future work.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Victor Dominello said over successive years, governments had tried unsuccessfully to implement policy on Aboriginal affairs.
"We've been told time and time again that language and culture and identity is absolutely critical for Aboriginal people and that is why it is front and centre of what we are doing today," he said.
The University of Sydney's Professor Shane Houston said more than 3000 people had been consulted on the generational roadmap, which took a "whole of life approach" to challenges facing Aboriginal people.
"That is something we have been asking of government for the last 30 years," he told reporters.
