While here, he was left highly impressed by Armidale's Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place, which he visited to speak to members and to be tempted by the magnificent artwork on exhibition.

Mr Wyatt said he was absolutely comfortable with the change of the name of his portfolio, from Indigenous Affairs to Indigenous Australians.

"The Prime Minister offered the job to me and said, 'I am not going to call it affairs, you'll be the Minister for Indigenous Australians.' he said we were talking about people, not issues," he said.

"What's interesting is, a lot of Australians can't get used to the notion that it is no longer the Minister for Indigenous Affairs. I still get called that, but it will transition.

"All those who follow should have the title of Minister for Indigenous Australians. We've got to focus on the people, the humanity of our people and the issues they face as human beings on a daily basis."

Minister Wyatt said his people had a lot of successes, but the problem was only the deficits were heard of.

"If I am a child and I keep hearing that there is something wrong with my language, something wrong with my culture and I'm not good at maths and not good at English, these things impact. So, you then see yourself as a deficit," he said.

"I want to turn that around and say, 'Right, we've got fantastic young people.

"Or, the people I met this morning, Aboriginal health workers, and I was just saying to them, 'The power doesn't sit with the Minister, or with the director in charge of you. At your community level, the power sits with you."

"You know every one of your family. You know what you can go and help them with and what you advocate for. So you should never be in awe of the people above you; be in awe of yourselves because you make the difference."

He said Aboriginal people with jobs needed to accept that they were not "just" an Aboriginal health carer or road worker.

"They make a great contribution to their community, to their families, but more importantly they are the strongest advocates for many of the issues that arise,' Minister Wyatt said.

He said there were at least half a dozen paintings he would have liked, and joked he knew his wife would kill him if he purchased them.

"We've already got about 58 pieces of Aboriginal artwork and no walls to hang them on," he said.

Chair of the Armidale's Aboriginal Cultural Centre and Keeping Place Rose Lovelock was excited by the Minister's visit said she was overjoyed.

"I'd just made an open invitation to him to visit us at any time, and he's here. It's wonderful," she said.

"It's an opportunity for local people just to know him visually and perhaps even just have a talk with him, and that's just lovely.

"What I intend to do today is just encourage people to talk and let them know what they do in community and what they would like to be able to do in community."

Rose said she was very pleased with the recent improvements made to the keeping place.

"At the moment we do a lot of paintings and artwork. What I'm hoping this will become is all areas of the arts, performing and creative," she said.

"Schools are already registering an interest in us.

"Revenue raising is always an issue for us ... I'd love to see a lot more permanency with the funding issues, but we will work towards that."

Rose said her very proactive board wanted to get back to the community to ask for its input on other issues as well.

"Because it's a one stop shop. Where the front door is, it's culture, heritage and survival, you know? What I'm hoping is I can find somewhere we can represent the needs of this region," she said.

"I'd like to just inject back into this centre, so it is a one stop shop for anybody wanting to know."