‘Good morning, Phoebe. I’m Ingrid, your class guardian,’ a woman said before wrapping her arm around my shoulder. She was stout with shoulder-length brown hair, and although she seemed warm, I could tell she was also a very serious person.

I’d met Ingrid on the one and only day that I’d visited the school with Dad and Caitlin. They sat there acting all perfect, trying to convince the school why I should be accepted. Caitlin took great delight in telling the teachers interviewing us, ‘We’ve had an offer accepted on a house in The Village. It’s around the corner.’

That day, Ingrid asked me what kind of things I was into. I told her: ‘Basketball.’ I should have asked more about the school’s basketball program. I would have found out then that they don’t even have a team.

Now, Ingrid walked me out to a grassed area at the front of the school, near where Dad and Caitlin had dropped me off. I could see them standing with the other parents.

Ingrid sat me on the lawn next to kids who I guessed were my classmates and I thought I was going to die of shame with all of their eyes watching me. A woman walked up to the microphone in front of us and said, ‘Welcome to the new school year! We’re so honoured to have you with us and I hope that this is a blessed year for you all.’ I could tell that she was the principal because she was older than all the other teachers. She wore slacks and a nice pressed shirt, had neat grey hair, but to not be entirely out of place, she also wore a colourful scarf. Then she said, ‘Stephanie, can you please come to address us?’

A woman with curly brown hair and wearing a flowery skirt, orange T-shirt and sandals walked onto the stage. Her voice was calm as she said, ‘Imagine your grandparents sitting in the place you are right now, and their grandparents before them, and their grandparents before them, in a time before Europeans came to this country. The Kaurna people, upon whose lands we’re gathered today, have lived here for thousands of generations. To begin our new school year, it is important that we think about Kaurna peoples’ connection to this place, in the hope that we can respect it just as Kaurna people do. Thank you.’

It was great to hear the Acknowledgement of Kaurna Country. I glanced across to Dad, who was applauding. Caitlin was wiping her eyes. She was always crying, especially at things that made her happy. It was so annoying. And that’s when I really noticed all of the other parents standing around the outside of us students. I could see why Caitlin wanted me to go to this school: so many of the other parents were like her, yoga fans and vegans or whatever. And there were easily ten white parents with dreadlocks.

The principal continued, ‘The rose ceremony is such a wonderful way to begin our school year. It introduces us to ritual from the very beginnings of our time together, and prepares us for observation of growth and change. The commencing Year Twelve students will this morning present the students beginning Year One with a rose. At the end of the year, the Year One students will present the graduating Year Twelve students with a rose. Let’s begin.’