History was made deep in the heart of Arnhem Land today when federal cabinet met for the first time in an indigenous community.

As a lone dog wandered through a sea of barefoot children on a straw mat, in an open shelter surrounded by stringybark forest, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and 15 of his ministers listened to the concerns of the Northern Territory's Yolngu people.

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Little more than an hour later - after the ancestors of the region's 16 clans were called with singing, dancing and clapping sticks - cabinet was handed a metre-long bark petition calling for the recognition of indigenous people in the constitution.

The ceremony took place on the same ground at Yirrkala where, 45 years earlier, Yolngu people presented the federal government with a now famous bark petition, voicing their opposition to a mine at Gove.

"We do not seek to take away from the rights of other Australians - we simply seek the protection and recognition that is given to the rights of other Australians," said Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu, clad in ceremonial dress of garlands and a yellow loin cloth.

"We do not seek to be separate from Australia but to be recognised and secure within Australia."

The petition calls on the Australian government to secure within the constitution the "self-evident and fundamental right" of the clans of east Arnhem Land to their land, waters, economic independence and future.

Mr Rudd, who received the petition surrounded by dancers in ceremonial dress, said his government had already taken the first step to reconciliation by saying sorry.

The next priority was closing the gap on Aboriginal disadvantage, he said.

Mr Rudd gave the strongest indication yet the government intended to stand by an election promise to reform the constitution.

"The Labor government has long had a commitment to the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people," he said.

"We will also give attention to detailed sensitive consultation with indigenous communities about the most appropriate form and timing of constitutional recognition."

Today's gathering was the fifth time cabinet has met outside Canberra since the Labor government won power last November.

Mr Rudd used the historic occasion to urge locals to embrace a new "framework for the future".

The cornerstone for the commonwealth's blueprint for closing the gap was a three-way partnership between government, communities and companies, he said.

"What I would like to see more of in the future is each community in remote and regional Australia will be teaming up with a major Australian company who may have a direct interest in helping provide employment, microfinance (and) helping in other areas in building up the local communities," he said.

Mr Rudd said miner Rio Tinto and the National Australia Bank had already engaged in such partnerships "based on mutual respect and mutual responsibility".

At Yirrkala, cabinet ministers were questioned by local residents on the need for mental health workers, education in the homelands and a shortage of housing for teachers.

A statement from 53 clan elders was also presented to cabinet, including a 25-point wish list calling for "fundamental change" in the way government deals with indigenous people.

It sought an immediate end to the waste on "intervention bureaucracy" and the removal of the blanket imposition of welfare restrictions and five-year lease schemes.

The statement also stressed the need for government support of locally-based indigenous economic development initiatives, investment in education and the establishment of regionally-based advisory forums.

Cabinet ministers later travelled by bus to the nearby mining town of Nhulunbuy for a series of community meetings.