Last Friday I stood looking at a wonderful aboriginal painting by Gloria Tamerre Petyarre. She was born at Mosquito Bore in the Northern Territory and now lives in Alice Springs.

Her painting is from the Western Australian Le Pley family collection and it depicts the mountain devil, a lizard-like creature, moving through the landscape changing its colour in a chameleon-like fashion. It is a vibrant depiction of a story that comes from rich Australian Aboriginal cultures which go back 65,000 years. It also reminded me of how lucky we are to share this land with the oldest continuing culture on earth.

But I wasn’t viewing this masterwork in the Northern Territory. I was on Ambassador Row in Beijing in the Australian Embassy and being hosted by the Ambassador Jan Adams who has had a spectacular career in public service including a leading role in transformative free-trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan.

Regular readers will know I’d just spent three fascinating days in China where our current diplomatic battles have been in the headlines. But Adams and others are moving us through this testy period as our government comes to grips with the re-emergence of China as a major world force.

That morning I’d been in the Forbidden City, the vast seat of Chinese dynastic power from the 15th century to the early 20th century which included trading relationships with the Yolgnu nation of North East Arnhem Land.

We need to understand each other much better and as I looked at the Petyarre painting it made me think of the words of psychologist Donna Hicks who writes, “The glue that holds all of our relationships together is the mutual recognition of the desire to be seen, heard, listened to and treated fairly; to be recognised, understand and to feel safe in the world.”