Uluru Dialogue co-chair Aunty Pat Anderson says she is getting a sense of "deja vu" and fears "we will see the Makarrata baby thrown out with the referendum bathwater" following perceived mixed messages from the Government on the truth-telling commission's future.

Aunty Pat's words came during her speech at the first National Allyship Summit in Wollongong on Thursday.

Speaking to ABC's Insiders from Garma Festival, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seemingly backtracked on Labor's 2022 election commitment to a Makarrata Commission and implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, saying "What we've proposed is Makarrata just being the idea of coming together".

On Monday, recently-appointed Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy addressed the comments, saying "we are not moving away from our commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart" and later adding "the interpretation of what the Prime Minister said has been taken completely further than what it was meant to".

Aunty Pat had already said Mr Albanese's comments were confusing.

"The Makarrata called for in the Uluru Statement is a bricks-and-mortar body and it was a clear election promise," she said.

Referencing Minister McCarthy's response on Thursday, Aunty Pat said "we shall see".

"What I can say is that I'm certainly getting a sense of deja vu. That familiar feeling when retail politics and short-termism start to motivate the abandonment of a key Indigenous reform," Aunty Pat said.

"I worry that we will see the Makarrata baby thrown out with the referendum bathwater.

"I hope I'm wrong. But we have seen that politicians can be fair weather friends. And when I see that, it makes me all the more grateful for our steadfast allies."

After appearing at the summit, UOW Aboriginal Health senior lecturer and Yorta Yorta woman, Dr Summer May Finlay told ABC "I think it is really clear that this government is walking away from makarrata, in the spirit of it as outlined in the Uluru statement".

"I think that this government needs to really think about its commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and put action behind that, which would be a genuine, national truth-telling summit approach," Dr Finlay said.

In her address, Aunty Pat went on to canvas the "heartbreaking loss" of the October referendum, and what she labelled as "12 years of conversations" leading to the Uluru Statement "misrepresented and distorted" and "lost in political debate".

"Like so many other things in our history... our idea was taken from us," she said.

"That idea based on simple human decency - it was taken, and misconstrued in a hundred ways. Some unintentional, but many intentional.

"One of the greatest distortions was the notion - repeated ad nauseum - that mob did not support the Voice."

That "notion" conflicted with Uluru Statement-led research in the lead up to the referendum, and has since been disproven in polling statistics within regional areas with high Indigenous populations and polling booths across the NT, Aunty Pat said.

"From mob, it was a crystal clear YES," she said.

"That's what our research tells us. In the absence of any real analysis from Government or media, we're doing our own."

She also said a risk remains "frozen in time" and "unable to progress" without understanding "every facet" behind the No vote.

"The Statement was about charting a path forward, one where we ALL belong in - and to - our own country," Aunty Pat said.

"We'll need to land that message with a new messaging framework. A framework that will be effective in a very challenging environment."

Uluru Statement research analysis is flagged to be shared.