Macklin cracks whip for reconciliation

Actor Jack Thompson has played rugged Australian characters in plenty of films.

But he says the indigenous stockmen of northern Australia are the true heroes of the outback.

The Rudd government launched Reconciliation Week on Thursday by pledging $150,000 for a research project to highlight the history of indigenous stockmen and women.

The project will be conducted by the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame. Mr Thompson is a life-member and the man behind the initiative.

In the past cattle properties had white owners and white drovers but the rest of the workforce was black, he said.

"It's never been acknowledged. This will draw attention to an area of our history that's been ignored."

The actor, now approaching 70, went to work on a Northern Territory cattle station in 1955 when he was just 14.

"I was the only white fella out on the stock camp and they treated me like their own son," Mr Thompson told AAP.

"It was wonderful - one of the most fabulous things that ever happened to me. You're out there with these people who speak their own language and still have their own culture entirely."

The $150,000 grant was announced by Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin on Thursday outside Parliament House in Canberra.

Before being taught to crack a whip, she told reporters it was important to recognise the ongoing work that indigenous stockmen and stockwomen did.

"We know that Aboriginal people have an enormous amount to be proud of given their history as stockmen and stockwomen and we want those stories to be told," Ms Macklin said.

"We want our children to hear them to know that this is part of the Australian story."

Aboriginal trainee stockwomen Ellenore Lowdown, from Laura on Cape York, says working with horses on the land is a dream come true.

She'll work anywhere once her training is complete - "so long as it's on a cattle station".

"I love working with horses," she said outside parliament.

"Helicopters and motorbikes are quicker, but I like the horses."

As Ms Lowdown was talking, a loud crack echoed across the lawn in front of parliament.

Ms Macklin had finally got her whip working.