Sierra Bates is currently far from the plains of Montana where she is a member of the Native American tribe called Black Feet.

She is part of a group of students from Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) in Washington state visiting Sydney for a few weeks on a cultural study tour.

The students, who are being hosted by Sydney TAFE's Eora College, will learn about the Indigenous cultures of Australia, learn local languages and explore Aboriginal cultural sites.

"There is nothing like coming here and receiving first hand about their creation stories and how they respect the earth, just like we do," Ms Bates told 702 ABC Sydney.

Students of Eora College travelled to Washington in 2014 and met Native American elders as part of a study tour. ( Supplied: Eora College )

Two years ago, students from Eora College went to Spokane College on an 11-day Aboriginal leadership tour to learn about the Native American tribal cultures.

Now Sydney-based language teacher Peta-Joy Williams, who was on the 2014 tour, is returning the favour and showing Ms Bates what it means to be an Aboriginal Australian.

"My culture as a Wiradjuri woman and the Native American culture [are] very similar," Ms Williams said.

"Even the fact that each nation has particular tribal ceremonies and culture within itself, we have the same here."

The boarding school generation

The Black Feet tribes were nomadic people, Ms Bates explained.

They moved with their food source, the buffalo, and lived in tepees which were easy to put up and take down.

"We're mostly people who are really family-orientated," Ms Bates said.

"The women are highly respected and we're also known as people of the sun — we have a sun dance thrown every summer."

Ms Bates said it was "very confronting" when she heard about the Stolen Generations, as it shared parallels with her own history.

In the mid-1900s, her grandparents were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools that were run by Catholic missionaries.

"The goal of these missionaries was to take the Indian out of the person and make them white.

"They told [my grandmother], 'you can't speak your language at all' and it was beaten out of them," Ms Bates said.

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Ms Bates said her grandmother was taught to become a maid and learnt vocational skills like sewing and cooking.

She said many Americans were still ignorant about the history of the country's Indigenous cultures.

"There's a lot of romanticising of Native Americans over in America," Ms Bates said.

"A lot of Americans don't even know that we have our own languages.

"It is frustrating and it hurts because people just don't understand. I'm a minority there."

'Reclaiming our nations'

Both Ms Williams and Ms Bates said one of the more common misconceptions about Indigenous cultures was that they were all the same.

Peta-Joy Williams says there are similarities between Indigenous Australian cultures and Native American tribes. ( Supplied: Eora College )

"I'm Wiradjuri," Ms Williams said.

"I'm not like other Aboriginal people — I'm not like a Bundjalung person, I'm not like a person from Eora.

"We all have our very own unique languages, our own unique religions and practices."

Just as the recognition and understanding of Aboriginal people is growing in Australia, particularly through education programs, Ms Bates said attitudes towards Native Americans were also slowly changing.

"Earlier it was a shame to be a Native American, but now it's like: 'Oh, you're Native American!'

"We are progressing as a society of seeing Native American people as a positive thing and taking their view of the world."