Colour it like yours

By Evelyn Hicklin

Winner of the 2007 Dorothea Mackellar Community Relations Commission Award for poetry.

Our school’s
Like most others
Except for our Rwandan wall
Painted in 1994
Because of the war there
Triangles and squares of
Orange, yellow, blue and red

Go around the corner and it’s
Just like any other corner but for
Our elephant
And African elephant
Painted in the pattern of
Orange, yellow, blue and red

Then in front there’s a garden
If it wasn’t for the hands it’s
Like most other gardens
Hands of terra cotta
Made for Sorry Day
Some years ago now

In front there’s our school canteen
Sells food like they all do
But on the outside
There’s an image
Done by an aboriginal elder

Come inside our school
Climb the stairs and walk the corridors
It’s lind with photographs
Of children cooking
In front of Tongan cloths
Bark painting tunga bags

Further on
A calendar
On it
A drawing of a girl, a
Refugee from Africa
From a camp there
She travelled here
And it took four years
To find peace at our school

Keep going
Walk into our room
Just like other classrooms
But then there’s the Mexican angel
Made for Christmas last
To raise money
For a sponsored African boy

Look out our window and there’s
The sky
My sky
Your sky
Everyone’s sky

Everyone’s world
Everything’s different

But some things are the same.