I had a dream a few years ago where I woke up in the middle of the city and it looked nothing like it looks now. It was created in the Australian Aboriginal colours and was made to look more fluid and curved. The posters and ads on the buses were of Indigenous Australian people and most of the people around me had variations of dark skin. I thought I was in another world. But I wasn’t. It was ‘Brisbane’, Meanjin. Maybe as it might have been.

Though no one seemed to be bothered by me, I felt so out of place, like someone was about to call me an alien. But no commotion was made and I was left in wonder and awe over the skyscrapers half painted with the face of an Aboriginal man and half sliced with red, yellow and black.

And then I woke up.

Having grown up in a multicultural home as a mix of different ethnicities, I thought I understood to an extent. But I really only understand a little. I started to wonder, is that how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders feel amongst all of this western infrastructure, in the looming cities of grey and glass?

Give that a think next time you think about representation in Australia, or even in general.