Indigenous youth worker and Dubbo Young Citizen of the Year Lionel Wood said, if constitutional recognition was not "just another political stunt", the government should work quickly.
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His comments come as Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the government will have until September to draft a constitutional amendment to formally recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first inhabitants.
"We've had plenty of time now to think about this," Mr Wood, 21, said.
"We've had more time than necessary."
The young Indigenous leader's comments were yesterday flanked by Parkes Federal MP?Mark Coulton who said recognising indigenous people in the constitution was a symbolic gesture like the 2008 national apology to the stolen generations.
"I don't think we need a separate constitution for Aboriginal people but certainly I think it's appropriate that there's a recognition that they were here at the beginning," Mr Coulton said.
But the government's announcement has been criticised by Charles Sturt University senior law expert Dr Bede Harris who said amending the constitution to recognise Australia's first peoples would have "absolutely no practical effect whatsoever".
Dr Harris said Indigenous Australians need a broad-based provision which prohibits racial discrimination.
"A constitution is not a document in which you recognise anything," he said.
Dr Harris said neither the current nor former government had contemplated such a protection.
"I find that really shocking, that in 2014 we don't have anything in our constitution that outlaws racism."
Local Indigenous dancer Kurt Waites said he believed constitutional recognition would help remove the shame felt by many Indigenous young people.
"If we get recognised, we can put self-confidence in young fellas to move forward in life," Mr Waites, 27, said.
