Ngarra-Burria is also the name of the First People's Composers program at the Australian National University.

It was introduced by Indigenous composer, steel string guitarist and ANU lecturer in music composition Dr Christopher Sainsbury.

He started the two-year program to provide training and recording opportunities for other Indigenous composers in Western music styles.

Ensemble Offspring, Roland Peelman and Kevin Hunt are among the artists who worked with the Indigenous composers.

The second, current intake is of five students - four from NSW and one from Victoria.

Among them are Nardi Simpson of the band the Stiff Gins, Dr Sainsbury said.

Ngarra-Burria participants developed and recorded new chamber works that often drew on their own local culture and place.

Dr Sainsbury said some of the participants had already gained commissions from the program, which he ran with Melbourne composer Deborah Cheetham.

Rhyan Clapham received the $30,000 Peter Sculthorpe Fellowship to support him in writing new work.

In a new Platform Paper, Ngarra-Burria: New music and the search for an Australian sound, (Currency Press), Dr Sainsbury highlights appropriation of Indigenous culture and music by non-Indigenous composers.

He said Sculthorpe, John Anthill and James Penberthy were among the non-Indigenous composers who had "misappropriated" Indigenous music and culture in their works.

This was in contrast to more recent artists like Hunt who engaged meaningfully with Indigenous people.

But he said it tended to be "light appropriation".

The composers were of a different era and he didn't think any disrespect had been intended by them.

Sculthorpe, he said, did encourage Australians to look to the First Peoples to find their place and identity.

However, Dr Sainsbury thought non-Indigenous people borrowing aspects of Indigenous music and culture to suggest authenticity was no longer needed.

He said it effectively disempowered Aboriginal composers.

"I call Sculthorpe our Whitlam moment," Dr Sainsbury said.

He was making reference to the photograph of the former prime minister pouring sand into the hand of Gurindji leader Vincent Lingiari which was a trigger for the Aboriginal land rights movement.

Now, cross-cultural collaborations - including Ngarra-Burria - occur in a more inclusive way to produce new work.

"There will be performances later in the year," Dr Sainsbury said.

The First People's Composers program is funded by the Australian National University and the Australasian Performing Right Association.