Professor Peter Yu, ANU Vice-President (First Nations), was invited to speak at two conferences in China in June 2026. Professor Yu spoke to Chinese academics and international delegates about regional trade, First Nations economic empowerment, and his personal perspective as a Yawuru man with Chinese heritage.
APEC Economies China Studies Forum
On 12 June 2026, Professor Yu spoke at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economies China Studies Forum in Guangzhou about ‘Australia's First Nations and the Future of Regional Trade’. The conference was hosted by Jinan University’s Institute of Regional and Country Studies with Sun Yat-Sen University’s Center for Oceanian Studies and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a long economic history. They have traded, governed, managed land and sea, built relationships and sustained complex societies for thousands of years."
"The economic story of Australia’s First Nations is both ancient and contemporary. It reaches back thousands of years, but it also speaks directly to the future of Australia’s relationship with the Asia-Pacific," Professor Yu said.
"My father was a Chinese hard-hat pearl diver after the Second World War. Broome was once known as the pearling capital of the world. But it was also a place where the rules of White Australia and the racial laws of the time shaped every aspect of people’s lives.
"The pearling industry depended on Aboriginal and Asian labour, and for that reason the White Australia policy was often applied unevenly in practice. Yet this did not mean equality or acceptance.
“At the same time, Western Australia’s racial laws continued to control Aboriginal lives and restrict relationships across racial boundaries. My Aboriginal mother and Chinese father lived within that contradiction: their labour and presence were part of the local economy, but their relationship was denied legal and social acceptance.
“Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have rights and interests across significant areas of land and sea. Indigenous organisations, native title bodies, land councils, community-controlled organisations and Indigenous businesses are playing a growing role in economic development. This creates new opportunities for wealth creation, enterprise and partnership. It also creates new responsibilities for governments, investors and regional partners.
“Engagement with Indigenous peoples cannot be treated as a minor issue or a late-stage consultation process. It must be part of how economic development is planned from the beginning. This is particularly important in sectors that are central to the future of the Asia-Pacific economy.
"One example is critical minerals. Australia is rich in the minerals needed for clean energy technologies, batteries, advanced manufacturing and the global energy transition. Many of these resources are located on or near lands where Indigenous peoples have rights, interests and deep cultural responsibilities. The development of these resources cannot be separated from Indigenous land rights and Indigenous participation,” he said.
Professor Yu highlighted that foreign investment in Australia needs to be culturally informed.
Oceania Studies Forum
On 13 June 2026, Professor Yu was the keynote speaker at the Forum on Chinese Modernization and Oceania Studies in Shenzhen. He spoke about ‘Understanding Australia Through First Nations History: New Perspectives for Australia–China Dialogue’, The conference was hosted by Sun Yat-Sen University’s Center for Oceanian Studies with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Chinese Modernization Studies, and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
"I come to this conversation as a Yawuru man from Broome, in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia, and as someone with both Aboriginal and Chinese heritage. My reflections on Australia–China relations are grounded in family, Country, history and lived experience."
"Too often, Australia–China relations are discussed as if they are only about government-to-government relations, trade flows, security concerns, international education, or strategic competition. They are part of the relationship. But they are not the whole relationship," Professor Yu said
"There is another story. It is older, deeper and more human. It is the story of people, families, exclusion, and survival. It is the story of Aboriginal peoples, Chinese migrants and other communities who encountered each other in places such as the pearling ports, the goldfields and settlements across Australia.
"It is also the story of how Australia came to imagine itself: as a British settler society, as a white nation, as part of the Western world, and yet geographically located in the Asia-Pacific and Oceania. That tension has never fully disappeared.
“Without understanding the foundations of Australia’s history, we cannot fully understand Australia’s present. And without understanding that present, we cannot properly imagine a better future for Australia’s engagement with China and the wider world."
