Noel Pearson says the current generation of Indigenous leaders won't "have anything left" should Australians vote no to a consitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament.
Mr Pearson said he "will fall silent" if the campaign for constitutional recognition of First Nations people and for the Voice remain unfulfilled.
"I will fall silent. That'll be the end of it," he told ABC 7:30 on Monday.
"I've always believed in the Australian Constitution. I believe in Australia. I believe in the people of Australia. I believe the people of Australia must recognise the First Peoples, my peoples, and I have pursued a middle path, a middle path between the original Australians and the new Australians.
"If the advocacy of that pathway fails, well, then a whole generation of leadership will have failed. I don't think we have anything left after that."
In the absence of of a successful Voice referendum the fight will rest on future generations to take on, he said.
Mr Pearson is a long-time advocate and respected leader.
His organisation Good to Great Schools has worked in partnership with government to deliver programs for Closing the Gap in education and said that same co-design could be seen for the nation's decision-making for his people "to take charge of our destiny in the future".
"The word that's been forgotten here or lost in these debates is ultimately nothing will change until we have a partnership between the government and indigenous people. And the voice will be at the national level," he told 7:30.
He said a Voice provides the foundation for empowering meaningful change in communities "at ground zero".
Ms Pearson said he is "appalled" by Tony Abbott's shift from "strong advocate" in his days as Prime Minister to now oppose the Voice and shared that disappointment for incumbent politicians against the proposal.
"It's not as if this voice has come out of the blue, has come out of the left wing or anything like that. It was proposed under Liberal National Party governments and I think it's important that Peter (Dutton) now finishes the job that John Howard started in 2007."
The federal National Party and the NT's Country Liberal Party, have taken official stances against the Voice, while the federal parliamentary Liberals (led by Mr Dutton) are yet to make their formal position known.
Mr Pearson rejected the notion, pushed by Mr Dutton and other senior Liberals, that not enough detail on the Voice proposal was known.
"I think there's been a lot of work done by the Calma-Langton report under the previous government," he said.
Mr Pearson said debate will continue but he remains "optimistic" ahead of the referendum.
"It's been a long road but I've never been surer that this is the opportunity Australians are going to seize and it's going to be so crucial to the future," he said.
"We can't let this slip out of our hands."
