Rural youth rediscover voice with Indigenous learning

A group of young men stood in scorching heat, placed their bare feet on red dust and began to dance.

As Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney watched on, the group performed a Wiradjuri welcome that honoured the trees, rivers and land.

The students of the Ngurang-gu Yalbilinya Indigenous-led high school education program in Orange, central west NSW, were once very different people.

"Twelve months ago that never would have happened," Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council chief executive Annette Steele told AAP on Monday.

"Every time new starters come in, they'll sit back for a while and don't get involved. 

"But then they start asking questions, and that's where their identity comes in."

Ngurang-gu Yalbilinya is a learning program that re-engages young men in education in a bush setting, where maths and literacy is intertwined with cultural lessons to help them connect with their identity.

Ms Burney began a week of campaigning for the "yes" vote for an Indigenous voice to parliament at the program's modest centre, a timber scout hall at the foot of Gaanha-bula, or Mount Canobolas.

She said such initiatives were central to the significance of the voice.

"This program is absolutely what the voice is about," she told reporters.

"It's hearing about successful programs that change lives and having First Nations people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people chosen by communities, particularly from regional and remote Australia, telling politicians what needs to happen to change lives."

One student gave Ms Burney a nulla nulla, a traditional wooden tool, hand-painted with a snake to represent healing.

She congratulated the class for coming back to education.

"In life there are many things that you can lose, you can lose your iPhone, lose your wallet," she told the small class. 

"But there's something you can't lose ... your education. 

"So while it might be challenging sometimes, remember it's yours and it will travel with you and be something really important to you for all your life."

The Local Aboriginal Land Council oversees the program, and Ms Steele said attendance rates were 94 per cent or above.

"It's about the identity of who they are and re-engaging them into their culture and where they fit in.

"Once they're confident in that, then tackling the hard things in English and maths become one step easier.

"They know someone's got their back."

She said the program showed the value of Indigenous-led programs developed "by us, not for us".

"These kids are leaders in the next generation."

Ms Burney will continue the regional campaign in Wellington, near Dubbo, on Tuesday before travelling to Tasmania and Victoria later in the week.