While mining has made Groote Eylandt wealthy, Warnindhilyagwa elder Tony Wurramarrba hopes a new deal giving its clans the power to run their own government services will secure its future.
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The island's manganese mine has brought in so much in royalties over the past 50 years a trust fund was set up and currently holds $160 million.
But money has not bought happiness, with disadvantage and violence affecting Groote Eylandt as much as the rest of indigenous Australia.
In a recent incident spears and rocks were thrown at police drug detection dogs at the island's airport.
In the Angurugu church on Wednesday, Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Anindilyakwa Land Council chairman Mr Wurramarrba signed The Groote Archipelago Local Decision Making Agreement.
The people on the Gulf of Carpentaria island will run government-funded bilingual schools, health clinics and numerous other government services.
A low-security prison or detention centre is planned to keep offenders close to family, with indigenous people comprising the majority of the NT's prisoners.
Mr Wurramarrba delivered a passionate speech to locals in the church declaring the people were not going anywhere and were "here to stay in the so-called white man's world".
However he admitted to concerns about what will happen when the mine's owner South 32 eventually packs up and leaves, taking all of the related jobs and service industries with it.
"We have to build a self sufficient future ... as Aboriginal people make decisions that benefit our children and children to come," he said.
"It is best we make our own decisions here; we know what's best for us."
The Warnindhilyagwa people ran their own economy trading with the Macassan people from Indonesia before white people arrived, he said.
Anindilyakwa CEO Mark Hewitt said he believed the extra autonomy would help the land council use the royalties to secure its future and new jobs.
Mr Gunner said the Territory government would still hold Anindilyakwa accountable for how it spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
But past centralised decision-making out of Darwin and Canberra had failed, he said.
"I see this as a very practical example of what a treaty could be ... you trust each other," he said.
Australian Associated Press
