The government announced on Tuesday that it had purchased the copyright for the flag for $20 million and the public was now able use the symbol without risking the need to pay a fee.

The flag was designed in 1971 by Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas, who sold the exclusive rights to use the flag to non-Indigenous company WAM Clothing in 2018.

Individual people have rarely legal faced issues when using the Aboriginal flag but some sports teams have had to redesign their Indigenous Round uniforms after receiving a cease and desist letter from WAM Clothing.

Aunty Cheryl Penrith said she had not heard of anyone previously having trouble using the flag for personal reasons.

"I think it's good for people who want to use it and if they want to use it in a respectful way, for the good of the people, then that's good," she said. "People on the ground have still worn the t-shirts. It would be really nice if the government gifted the copyright to an Aboriginal organisation.

"It's a difficult issue and the timing of the government's decision, right before Australia Day, was a bit strange."

Aunty Mary Atkinson said she was "quite excited" that the flag was now free and hoped people would use it in the right ways.

"It's great that it's put back in the public domain but for us as Aboriginal people it was never taken, it was only about people making money on the flag," she said.

"For us as communities and within our own communities, it always identifies us. We identify with the Aboriginal flag, even as babies, because of what goes into that flag: the struggles," she said.

"The flag became our flag because we weren't considered citizens in our own country."

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt said securing the free use of the Aboriginal flag was profoundly important for all Australians. "All Australians can freely display and use the flag to celebrate Indigenous culture. Now that the Commonwealth holds the copyright, it belongs to everyone, and no one can take it away," he said.

Mr Thomas said he hoped the new copyright arrangement would provide "comfort to all Aboriginal people and Australians to use the flag, unaltered, proudly and without restriction".

"I am grateful that my art is appreciated by so many, and that it has come to represent something so powerful to so many," he said.

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