The Australia Council for the Arts has announced that nine established Aboriginal Art Curators are taking part in an international exchange program at the 57th Biennale in Venice. Ozco's Executive Director Strategic Development and Advocacy, Dr Wendy Were explained that the First Nations Curators Program at the 2017 Venice Biennale builds on the First Nations Curators Exchanges held at 8th Asia Pacific Triennial in 2015 and in New Zealand in 2017 involving Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians.

A trio of Shepparton Ace College students is looking forward to the opportunity of a lifetime after being selected by Westside Circus to be a part of the National Treasures youth exchange program. Telaah Donnelly, Adam Eleftheriou and Kyrone Black will be training under the best acrobats at a week-long youth exchange in Melbourne in November, before travelling to York in the United Kingdom for another exchange experience. The students will also meet young people from Brazil, Sweden and the UK during the program and learn about their cultures.

To most New Zealanders, imagining life without feijoas is almost unthinkable.[...] Pole to Pole, based in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty region, export Zeijoa-brand feijoas around the world. Its target market is clear: New Zealand has one of the largest diasporas of any country in the world, with an estimated 600,000 citizens in Australia alone. Forget about not being able to vote, or the university fees hike: New Zealanders never feel less at home in Australia than for the three months of the year friends and family back home are experiencing peak feijoa fatigue.

In one of the most remote communities in Australia, young filmmakers are sharing their stories and the world is watching. [...] Their videos capture snippets of life in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, in central Australia. It's a closed Indigenous community, open to few visitors. There's also no mobile phone reception and few homes have access to the internet. Leo says the short clips have captured the attention of viewers in many far off places.

Pence, his wife Karen, and their two adult daughters, Charlotte and Audrey, saw some of the sights of Sydney, investing time in soft diplomacy on the last leg of a 10-day Asia tour that has been rich with symbolism about shoring up American economic ties and security cooperation. Karen Pence - who earlier charmed a meet-and-greet with embassy families with her pronunciation of "G'day" - held out a handful of chicory to Widji, an emu who boldly pecked at the bunch.

Australia’s Ambassador to China HE Ms Jan Adams AO PSM said, “The Australian Embassy proudly supports Screen Australia, Ausfilm and the Australian screen industry. Our work together delivers public diplomacy and economic diplomacy benefits by highlighting Australian creative excellence, deepening cultural understanding and delivering business opportunities in a fast growing market. 2017 is the Australia China Year of Tourism and marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations. It is a great time to be making co-productions.”

Australia has been warned it's losing its global influence on the world stage due to lacklustre contributions to foreign aid and humanitarian efforts. "We kind of miss you. We miss Australia. Australia should be big influential, taking your space, helping with humanitarian (disasters)," former prime minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt told ABC's Q&A. Ms Thorning-Schmidt compared Australia's foreign aid contributions to those of the UK.

A trend shared by the world’s top study destinations is the development of national international education initiatives. But what makes for a good strategy? Assimilation with the government and industry, argues a report from the British Council. It adds that strategies which are accompanied with a variety of complimentary policies like residence rights and post-study work, “are essential to the long-term growth and investment in the sector”.