Advance Australia Fair translated into Ngunawal for the first time, sung at Parliament House

An ensemble from the Gondwana children's choir performed the piece to a crowd who had gathered for the Minerals Council of Australia annual parliamentary dinner.

Gondwana Choirs general manager Bernie Heard said the ensemble was made up of both the Indigenous Children's Choir and the Sydney Children's Choir. There were 47 children involved in the event.

"It was an incredible honour for our young people," Ms Heard said.

"In our Indigenous Children's Choir we often work with custodians of language in a range of areas, so we regularly encourage that transfer of language and knowledge."

"They view that singing in language as their greatest responsibility. For them to be able to hold safe and to pass on language is a great responsibility, and they take that very seriously."

Ms Heard said Gondwana's artistic director Lyn Williams has a passion for the preservation of Indigenous language.

"I feel like we've really been part of something," Ms Heard said.

Ngunawal (also spelt Ngunnawal) elder and language custodian Tyronne Bell was tasked with translating the verse into his traditional language. Mr Bell has previously helped Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull learn phrases in Ngunawal for his Closing the Gap speech to parliament in 2016.

Mr Bell said he cried when he first heard the children's choir sing the words he had translated.

"The good thing about the Gondwana Choirs was they had sung other songs in Aboriginal languages, so they have an understanding of how to piece it together."

Mr Bell has been studying the Ngunawal language for five years. He said it took time to piece the right words together for the translation.

"Having the national anthem play, and to hear it in our language, it puts our language out there. It shows people what you can achieve if you put your mind to it," he said.

Minerals Council chief executive Brendan Pearson said Indigenous communities were "one of the most important partnerships for Australia's mining industry", and this was one way of honouring that.

"We always look to pay respect to Indigenous communities, but we wanted to do something very special this year to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Indigenous referendum and the 25th anniversary of the Mabo native title decision," Mr Pearson said.

"It was a very moving moment to have our Parliamentary dinner opened by a choir of children from a range of backgrounds, including Indigenous children, singing the national anthem in both English and Ngunnawal."

Ngunawal elder Mr Bell, who was assisted with the translation by Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies linguist Doug Marmion, is seeking the intellectual property rights for the translation, which he then hopes to share with schools in Canberra.