The group, which includes the National Native Title Council, Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and Indigenous Business Australia and First Australians Capital, will base its advocacy on recent talks with ­Indigenous communities and research on what a new policy approach could mean for welfare-dependent Indigenous Australians.

They see important opportunities in an emerging round of renewable energy projects. Some recent deals are markedly different from past royalty deals with miners, and give Indigenous communities a small stake in the project with options to borrow to buy a bigger stake.

Professor Yu, once a welfare officer in the remote town of Wyndham, describes in an essay in The Weekend Australian on Saturday how decades of welfare-centred government policy in ­Indigenous affairs has fallen short. He says taxpayers will ultimately lessen the amount they spend in Indigenous communities if the focus is on economic development.

“My recent engagement with communities around the country indicate that people are moving in this direction. I just fear that if we don’t we are going to be significantly challenged in terms of what happens from here with young people,” Professor Yu says.

“We will not be in a position where we can understand and own the risks better and plan and execute the nature of our future resilience but ultimately the sustainability of our communities.”

Professor Yu says none of the measures he proposes are intended to jeopardise or forget the importance of cultural and social imperatives that make Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians a distinct peoples.

The alliance also includes ­experts in intellectual cultural property and the First Nations Clean Energy Network.