THE POWERHOUSE of the 21st Century global economy is keen to learn from the planet’s oldest surviving culture.

China’s continuous culture stretches back 4000 years and its rich and fascinating civilisation has given us paper, gunpowder and the compass.

Now its university sector wants to engage with Australian Indigenous culture, which has a known history beyond 40,000 years.

“One thing we fi nd when we travel internationally with our academics is a signifi cant desire to understand Aboriginal culture, and what that looks like in terms of an education framework,” says Professor Peter Radoll, dean of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Research at the University of Newcastle.

Professor Radoll leads the Wollotuka Institute with co-directors Associate Professor Peter O’Mara, Professor John Maynard, and Leanne Holt.

The Institute is advancing and leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education and research.

Wollotuka academics Mrs Holt, Professor Bob Morgan and Dr Joe Perry visited China last year and had meetings with Minzu University, Beijing Normal University and Nankai University.

The trip was arranged to discuss building academic relationships with other Indigenous schools or units within those universities.

“As soon as Professor Morgan returned home there was an invitation for him to go over there for six months and teach,” says Professor Radoll. “So, fi ngers crossed, in the second half of 2015 or in the fi rst half of 2016 we will send at least one of our academics over to China to teach Indigenous studies.”

Internationalisation is a priority for Wollotuka. Early in 2015 Associate Professor O’Mara carried out a scoping study of Hawaii, other parts of the US and Canada.

“My plan is take to take about 12 students from different degrees and look at community-controlled health and education from a leadership perspective and possible application in Australia,” he says.

Professor Radoll and Professor Morgan visited New Zealand last year and were guests at one of the Maori universities.

“When I walked in it felt just like Wollotuka,” Professor Radoll says. “But it has 6000 students. A lot of their capital came from their treaty and their settlements and they’ve bought up land and property. One iwi or tribe owns a big shopping centre.

“They have considerable fi nancial resources.”

There will be a staff exchange with one of the Maori universities this year.

“I want them to understand our version of cultural affirmation,” says Professor Radoll.

“But I want our staff to understand we, as Wollotuka, are not that different to the Maori university in in terms of structure.”

Internationalising Indigenous education through staff exchanges with New Zealand, and teaching in China, are exciting prospects. But so too is reaffi rming local ties.

“The community is at the centre of Wollotuka’s operations, which is quite unusual,” says Professor Radoll.

In other Indigenous units in Australia, the university is the driver of the Indigenous strategy. It is different in Newcastle because of the central role of the community.

“The community expects we will do things around cultural affirmation,” says Professor Radoll.

“Our courses, the work we do, our community engagement is all around strengthening identity and our Aboriginality, and making sure our students are connected to community.

“One aim is to produce students who are connected to country and connected to their community. That is something we are going to work on much, much harder.

“Wollotuka does this well already. But I’m mindful of something Professor Maynard mentioned from early in his directorship, probably six years ago. It was about a road trip around the local Aboriginal communities.

“The touring group said ‘this is Wollotuka and this is your country and we’re here to serve you’.”

As a result, the courses and degree programs were informed by community input and that continues today.

“We are going to do another one of those trips this year,” says Professor Radoll. “It is really, really important that we do this. I want to maintain the community a voice.”

Historian Professor Maynard, who has been at the Institute for the past 21 years, agrees. The pre-eminence derives from community, he says.