Winning over so-called 'soft no' voters through respectful engagement would be the Yes campaign's priority leading up to the October 14 Voice to Parliament referendum, academic and lawyer Noel Pearson said.
Mr Pearson joined about 1000 Yes campaigners in Newcastle Sunday as part of a national day of action.
It was the Cape York activist's second visit to the Hunter to promote the Yes campaign in recent months.
"I came here about five weeks ago and saw the beginning of the campaign. To see where we're at now with four weeks to go is very pleasing. It's a wonderful atmosphere and a feeling of real determination and a real willingness to put in over the next four weeks," he said.
While weekend Newspoll data showed support for the Voice to Parliament had slumped below 50 per cent in every state, Mr Pearson said he remained optimistic the Yes campaign would prevail.
"The people in the middle are kind of soft yeses and we need to close the deal with them by telling them that indigenous people want this and this is going to produce practical change," he said.
"With the soft nos, we need to listen very carefully to their concerns and objections."
Mr Pearson said many of those still sitting on the fence had questions relating to the scope of issues that the Voice could talk about.
While the proposed provision relates specifically to "matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples", Mr Pearson said he had encountered people who believed it would extend to issues including nuclear submarines and interest rates.
"I find the conversion rate for the 'soft nos' is quite high when you give them the facts," he said.
"The No campaign will focus on everything else but the provision but when you concentrate on the provision, the section that we are being asked to authorise at the referendum, people have many of their questions clarified and they tend to come on board."
As a result, education would be the Yes campaign's focus of the next four weeks.
"We need to deal with their concerns respectfully. I don't think these people are necessarily antagonistic to Aboriginal People, they want something better, they want to close the gap," he said.
"But they want their questions about the provision or the meaning of the referendum answered and I think there are very ready answers. My own experience tells me that when we have those clear conversations people are very amenable to shifting from hesitation to a firm yes. That's going to be our job for the next four weeks."
Mr Pearson also spoke about his work on the Uluru Statement from the Heart as part of a Voice Q&A at the University of Newcastle on Sunday night.
"Newcastle really puts in. There's a high level of civic engagement and responsibility in this city and the surrounding region. I'm looking forward to tonight's event," he said.
