They utilised this leverage, and through actions on the international stage and in domestic media campaigns, the Conference was able to exert pressure on the Governments of the day to adopt a more involved approach to Aboriginal affairs.
[1][3] The Conference is known for its recommendation of a form of treaty between Aboriginal peoples and the Australian Government, using the Yolngu word makarrata to describe this.
[1] The Consultative Committee had an original purpose to provide the Commonwealth Government with advice on issues pertaining to Aboriginal people.
[1] The new Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the Fraser government, Ian Viner, in an address to the Committee, spoke of the "frustrations you as members suffer in trying to achieve an impossible task".
[8][9] However, the restructuring of the organisation did not provide the mechanisms for self-determination sought by Aboriginal leaders as, like its predecessor, the Conference had no direct policy-making or law-making power.
However, a string of actions on the international stage, including through the dispatch of a delegation to the United Nations in 1976, increased the domestic influence of the Conference.
[1] In April 1979, in a resolution which again litigated many of the issues in Coe v Commonwealth, the NAC expressed support for a Treaty between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal peoples.
Consequently, in late 1981, the Senate Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs began an investigation of the feasibility of a treaty or makarrata as proposed by the NAC.
Despite a number of concerns about the integrity of this investigation being expressed by Indigenous leaders, the Committee eventually delivered a report on the issues raised in 1983.
The other faction headed by Ray Robinson believed that the NAC needed resources not reform; they accepted the advisory position and directed their attention to interaction with government rather than Aboriginals themselves.
[6] This division led to lassitude in implementing reform which frustrated Holding, who grew impatient with the NAC due to its inability to see its weaknesses.
Tumultuous protests against Holding's land rights policies ensued in the first half of 1985 and eventually, in June, heralded the abolition of the NAC.
For example, the NAC's call for a treaty in the form of the makarrata in 1979 was significant in catalysing and directing the nature of Indigenous protest over the course of the decade which followed.
[1] During his time at the Conference, before he was elected national chair, he was crucial in helping shape the response of Indigenous representative groups to the issue of land rights and their allocation.
[1] A key initiative championed by Riley in the latter half of 1983 was the creation of a network of Indigenous activist and representative groups with the NAC, in an effort to strengthen the voice and influence of the Conference.
[1] One of Riley's first significant acts during his tenure as the National Chair was his playing a substantial role in the development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Bill.