In modern-day Australia, an unnamed female narrator works for a public housing centre that houses refugees and immigrants of a multitude of different ethnic backgrounds. The narrator’s centre has won a grant allowing the narrator to commission two artists to design a mural celebrating the centre’s residents. As the story begins, she stands in the centre’s gym with the artist couple—Mandy and Jake—who are in the midst of painting the mural, which needs to be completed in time for the opening celebration event in just a few days. As she talks to Mandy and Jake, the narrator privately feels awkward and embarrassed about the way the mural is going so far. While it was intended to be a collaborative project between the artists and the community living in the centre, it has not gone according to plan. None of the residents have come to help paint the mural and have instead avoided both the artists and the entire gym entirely while the painting has been going on. The narrator points out to the artists that the kids depicted in it should be holding a soccer ball rather than a basketball, because that’s the kid’s preferred sport. The artists say they will paint over the mistake but the narrator still leaves them feeling weary of how the project is going.
The narrator goes to get cash (using her own money, rather than the centre’s) for supplies for the women’s fabric-painting class she runs at the centre. When she gets to her car, she sees a parking inspector who is about to give her a ticket. She pleads with him, and mentions her class of refugee women as an excuse to get out of the ticket. Later, at her class, she asks the women in her class if they would help paint the mural, but they don’t want to. The narrator then asks if they will attend the mural opening on Friday and wear their traditional dresses at the event. The women in the class say yes to the former but no to the latter, and seem uncomfortable about the question.
The next day, the mural is almost complete: it shows a big row of people from all different ethnicities and races with their arms around each other, smiling. The narrator tells the artists it looks great but privately thinks it looks nothing like real life. A man from the company Pro-Guard comes to inspect the mural’s wall surface and help select an anti-graffiti sealant that will protect the art from any damage. The man recommends the sealant called “white spirit,” which will both prevent any attempted graffiti from sticking and also make it easy to wipe away any graffiti that does get onto the surface. The narrator works with Mandy and Jake apply both coats of the sealant together, working late into the night on the day before the opening event.
At the opening event, the minister—a local political figure—praises the mural for its authenticity and collaborative design, both of which the narrator knows are not true. The narrator feels increasingly ashamed as the event goes on and she observes the residents, who are all avoiding getting near the mural, which inaccurately represents the actual community. As the event is happening, the centre manager privately asks the narrator to get rid of some empty paint solvent tins, as he’s worried the teenage residents might take them and get high sniffing them. The narrator, feeling upset, moves to leave the event, giving the camera she is supposed to take pictures of the events with to Jameela, a woman in her fabric painting class, who stands with two other women in the class, Nahir and Mawiya. Just as the narrator is about to go, she is stopped by Jameela, who calls her back to take a picture with the whole class. The narrator, despite how bad she is feeling, smiles for the photo.
