The National Sorry Day Committee has asked the ACT Supreme Court to decide whom the framed apology belongs to. It was presented in 2008.

The committee was granted permission last week to file an amended application to recover property held by its indigenous former co-chairwoman Helen Moran.

Ms Moran, who was born to a white mother and an Aboriginal father, was taken from her family at 18 months.

She became a founding member of the committee, which was formed following the 1997 ''Bringing Them Home'' report into the stolen generations.

For 10 years, the committee continued to build awareness of the stolen generations and provided advice to Mr Rudd on the wording of the apology, which was delivered on February 13, 2008. Lawyers for the committee originally sought the return of 14 items, including electronics, original pledge books, artwork and music sticks. Fairfax Media believes all items were returned, except the framed apology which is held by Ms Moran.

The committee has until mid-week to file the documents for its return.

The stoush started last year when two groups claimed to be the legitimate executive committee of the National Sorry Day Committee.

Ms Moran's faction was voted in at a special general meeting in October 2012, but a second bloc gained support at the annual meeting the following month.

In December, the breakdown of governance caused the Department of Health and Ageing, which provides the majority of the committee's funding, to withhold payments.

A department spokesman said: ''Due to this dispute, the NSDC was not in a position to continue providing services to members of the stolen generations and could not comply with their funding agreement with the Commonwealth.''

Mediation failed and the committee filed for liquidation in December, but pulled back after funding was reinstated in March thanks to a court injunction.

In February, Justice John Burns made interim orders that recognised the AGM-elected leadership group as the legitimate executive and restrained Ms Moran's faction from representing themselves as members of the NSDC.

The decision prompted the department to release funding that had been due in January.

But the department warned it would monitor the situation to ensure the committee could continue to provide services in line with its funding agreement. ''[The department], as the primary funder of the NSDC, is liaising closely with the organisation to ensure that the governance and management issues are being addressed and that there is minimal impact on the services provided by NSDC to members of the stolen generations,'' the spokesman said.