The tent embassy - on the lawns of Old Parliament House in Canberra - is a semi-permanent site of tents and signs, that activists claim represents the rights of indigenous Australians.
In response to comments by the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, which sparked the protests on Australia Day, Professor Dodson says the Tent Embassy is still relevant.
"Everything's got a role in this country, we live in a democracy," he said.
"And our expressions of our points of view as long as they're respectful of others have all got a role. We need honest constructive dialogue around the issues and there are many unresolved issues that frustrate Aboriginal people."
Professor Pat Dodson made the comments during his keynote address at the University of New South Wales in Sydney on Monday night.
He also conceded the angry protests, which caused the Prime Minister and Mr Abbott to flee a Canberra restaurant, could taint the public's view of its cause.
He said it was an ugly event, but to condemn the protests outright is simplistic.
"You've got to look to why people are frustrated and why people feel that the aggresive behaviour like that is required," he said.
Professor Dodson says Indigenous people still feel frustrated, and that they have a right to express that.
But he says the Australia Day protest hasn't harmed the campaign for constitutional change.
"It's a reality of our unresolved issues, it's a reality of the frustration," he said.
"Let's see it for the ugliness of what it was and let's move on to dealing with the constructive things...that can help diminish the necessity for that kind of behaviour in the future."
''I will always condemn bad manners and unnecessarily aggressive behaviour by whomever. But I will always defend people's rights to assert their political position and try to look to the heart of why people feel so oppressed that they feel violent confrontation is the only recourse to the resolution of their position,'' he said.
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