Laurie Perry doesn't hesitate when asked to explain how Aboriginal people are disadvantaged in the Hunter.
He points to the fact that Aboriginal people are over-represented in the region's two jails at Cessnock and St Helliers near Muswellbrook.
Conversely, the Hunter's multi-billion dollar mining, energy and tourism sectors employ relatively few Aboriginal people.
As someone at the coalface of trying to tackle this challenge, the Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation chief executive said he initially felt the Voice to Parliament offered little in the way of practical solutions.
But then he took another look at the Statement from Heart and its accompanying documents.
Yes, it was another piece of damned legislation but perhaps this was different.
The proposal seemed to offer hope that, by giving Aboriginal People a direct voice, that the vicious cycle of Aboriginal disadvantage in regions like the Hunter could start to close.
"Every piece of legislation that has been created to engage with Aboriginal people doesn't work; it only creates more division," Mr Perry said.
"Maybe the Voice will work, because it is designed to engage directly with Aboriginal people."
Mr Perry's ancestral ties to the Hunter go back thousands of years.
But rather than a source of pride, his identity was a cross to bear as a young man living in Singleton in the 1970s.
"It was pretty tough, racism was just accepted as normal," he said.
"I coped by just laughing it off. You can't fight every kid at school."
He went on to work at the Liddell Colliery for 10 years before he was crushed in an underground mine collapse in 1990.
After recovering form four broken ribs, a punctured lung and a severely damaged leg, he became involved in various local indigenous tourism ventures.
He was then appointed as the chair of the newly formed Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation, an organisation specially set up to improve the social and economic outcomes of Aboriginal people living in the Hunter.
"We don't care if they are Gamilaroi, Worimi or Awabakal, we want to change their lives for the better," Mr Perry said.
Milestone projects have included achieving the protection of Redbourneberry Hill and the Baiame Cave outside of Singleton.
On another front, the corporation is investigating the former St Clair Mission as an economic development project.
But Mr Perry, a Wonnarua elder, knows that education is the key to improving long term outcomes for the region's indigenous population.
It is a goal that intersects with a myriad of inter-related issues.
"Our kids aren't completing year 10, but why? It could be that they are not relating to the education system itself, it could be that their families are struggling," he said.
"After that, there's the juvenile justice system and incarceration. It's a massive problem for our people, but the solution starts with education."
In an effort to better understand the root causes of these entrenched problems the Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation recently teamed up with Seer Data and the Australian Catholic University.
The Kawuma Closing the Gap project is giving a voice to the community by not just collecting data but also taking action to create change where it is needed most.
Mr Perry knows progress will be slow but he hopes the Voice can complement the work that is already underway.
"If you engage Aboriginal people in the economic development of the country everyone will win," he said.
