What Narelda Jacobs wants people to know after the Queen's death.

Four days on from the Queen's death, Narelda Jacobs says Indigenous Australians would have liked to see more change during the monarch's seven decades on the throne.

Speaking on Studio 10 on Monday morning, the journalist and proud Whadjuk Noongar woman shared her father, who was an activist and reverend for the Uniting Church, met with the Queen four times before she passed. 

"When my dad met with the Queen those four times, and Prince Philip, they knew full well that plans for a treaty were afoot, as there were treaties in New Zealand and also in Canada. But what did they do?" she asked rhetorically. 

"That's the source of the frustration."

Watch: Narelda Jacobs speaks about the Queen's death on Studio 10. Post continues below. 

Referring to a photo of her dad receiving an MBE [Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] award from the Queen in 1981, Narelda said the picture symbolises, "that the Queen knew the struggles of First Nations people, she knew about the trauma that would have been experienced from colonisation".

"That [photo] symbolises to me, the sovereign, the Queen, the highest authority, and a man who... has been working tirelessly his whole life to have the sovereignty of his First Nations people recognised."

Narela Jacobs dad receiving the MBE from the Queen in June 1981. Image: Channel 10. 

Over 40 years on, Indigenous Australians are still calling for the establishment of a treaty with the government. 

"The source of frustration for First Nations people here in Australia is that, if they [the Queen and Prince Phillip] knew the trauma and intergenerational trauma, what more could they have said?"

"I know the monarchy is above politics but I think we would have liked there to be a little bit more over those 70 years of reign."

Despite this, she says there's no need to feel any anger. 

"That's not something we need to be angry about. It's not something that should be dismissed as saying, 'Get over it'.

"We need to come to terms with our history and really unite."

Narelda thinks the first step is a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which is expected to be held next year. 

"The Voice to Parliament needs to happen first before we talk about them becoming a republic. The Voice to Parliament is the first step, it's the easiest step in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. And it flows on [to] treaty processes which began in this country in the late 70s."

The establishment of a treaty will lead to practical change by finally recognising Indigenous Australians as sovereign people, she added. 

Read: 'I am an Aboriginal woman. Don't ask me to mourn the Queen's death.'

"There is no constitutional recognition of Indigenous people. So that's what treaty is all about, making agreement, making peace and that peace should have been done as soon as Captain Cook landed here, not firing the first shots and injuring people."

Moving forward, Narelda says it's important for people to keep an open mind and come together. 

"We can co-exist with the head of state of Australia, which doesn't have to be the monarch... We can have First Nations authority as well sitting side by side. Those things can exist and that would involve the Australian public having a very personal journey... to understand that history and say yes, I am happy for those things to coexist and for us to live in a world where we can be united and not divided."

Feature Image: Channel 10/Mamamia.

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