I block out the lecture for a bit. I hate when people talk at me like I’m not black because I didn’t grow up in a humpy or run around with my susoos out. Mum grew up on our foods, but Nan said they’d lost access to all that when we got kicked off the stations en masse. It happened right after the government told the property owners they had to start paying their black workers. Funny how that happened.

‘… and then they would cook it in the ashes of a fire.’

‘Wow. Were there any newspapers that have stuff like this?’ She gives me another weird look. ‘We’re supposed to show we’ve done research and found old documents and things to back it up.’ I give my best innocent smile. ‘If I could take photos that’d be great, but my teacher said written records are even better. I think she wants to make sure we actually do some reading.’

The woman chuckles. I’m trying not to shift around from the weight of the lies. I’ll probably end up doing an essay on this later just so I won’t feel so bad, as soon as I figure out which class I can fit it into.

‘Most of our documents are newspaper clippings we’ve kept in photo frames. The older documents were starting to fall apart so we shipped them off to the state library a few years ago for safekeeping.’

My face falls and she rushes to reassure me. ‘There are still a few copies at the local library and I’ve heard you can get electronic copies from the state library. The staff over at the council offices could probably help if you asked.’

‘Oh. I guess I was just hoping to see something real, hold a bit of history, you know?’

I don’t need her insulted look to know I’ve said the wrong thing. ‘Well, if you picked up any of the items here you’ll find they’re as “real” as any old newspaper.’

‘Oh yeah, totally. I just meant more from the words of someone who was alive back then … you know?’ Hell, I don’t know what I mean at this point, but she tries to be nice about it.

‘So … umm, what exactly were you hoping to learn?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe if anything exciting ever happened here?’ I make sure enough of my sarcastic, know-it-all-teen is in that sentence as possible. I swear she stifles a sigh.

‘Well, aside from the discovery of gold, which brought in loads of people and change, we’ve got a few clippings from the bigger events in the town.’