She used her calligraphy skills honed over about 24 years to produce a special parchment featuring a speech that gave her ''goose bumps''.

The work which will be displayed in Parliament House contains the ''strong'' words spoken during the Prime Minister's apology to the Stolen Generations.

''On the day, I was standing in the cafe at the University of Canberra along with 100 colleagues watching the television,'' she said. ''The honesty and the sincerity of the words just gave me absolute goose bumps and I thought I've got to write this come hell or high water.''

Ms Black shed a few tears yesterday when her work was unveiled.

She secured vellum made from tanned calf skin from William Cowley's Parchment Makers in Britain which produced the same material used in this country's ''founding documents''.

''It's one of those deja vu type of things where you're working on vellum that was bought from the same place,'' she said.

The writing surface was better than paper and was likely to last for 500 to 1000 years.

She used artist-grade sumi black ink a traditional substance made in Japan and employed a 16th century style of handwriting.

''I've tried to keep the text very legible and also quite formal in the sense that the wording is so powerful that ... I haven't turned it into a tizzy-type style. I've kept it fairly simple to look at even though it's a little bit difficult to do,'' she said.

''We have this standing joke it took 20 years and 30 hours [to produce the work] but that document would have taken me about 30 to 40 hours.''

Ms Black works three days a week with the University of Canberra's council for humanities, arts and social sciences.

But she spends most of her time in a home studio where she produces artworks, including special visitor's books for the Senate and House of Representatives.

Ms Black felt ''honoured'' to work on the manuscript, hoping people who saw it in 1000 years would be shocked to learn that taking indigenous children away from their parents was once official policy.

''That's why I'm hoping the document lasts that long and that future generations and every child and every visitor to this country can see it and say 'well good on the Australian Government and good on the indigenous people for working together ... to reconcile and go forward'.''