ABC News: David Goldie
)Nicole Wade remembers being a young student wanting to be invisible at school, hoping to "blend into the walls" and "into the carpet" and praying a teacher wouldn't ask her a question.
She felt a strong disconnect from students and teachers alike, who didn't recognise her as an Aboriginal person despite her deep sense of pride in her Noongar heritage.
"Maybe [it was] around the colour of my skin, maybe they didn't think that's what an Aboriginal person would look like," she said.
"I think that disconnect from something I felt so connected to really started to impact the way I felt I was valued in the school community."
ABC News: Supplied
)It got so bad she would run away from school. Sometimes the principal ended up chasing her down the street but she could never be caught.
Good sprinters run in the family. Her grandmother Joan Eggington would often race against champion Shirley Strickland in Western Australia's wheatbelt where she grew up.
"[She] was able at times to actually beat her. But Nan at that time wasn't able to compete in the Olympics because she wasn't recognised as an Australian citizen," Nicole said.
ABC News: Nakari Thorpe
)The 40-year-old grew up in Villawood, in Sydney's south-west, where social disadvantage surrounded her.
She became a mother at 17 while still in high school. A year later, she was pregnant with her second baby.
But the challenge of being a teenage mother didn't stop Nicole from chasing a dream. In fact, it pushed her to pursue a career in the very industry she felt so disconnected from.
"You'd never think now, looking back, that I would ever become a school principal myself," she said.
Just days after giving birth to her second child, Nicole sat her HSC biology exam. Completing her schooling took her two years via distance education, through "many late nights, pushing the pram".
She achieved a universities admission index (UAI) of 94.5 and was the dux.
She's now principal at Minto's Campbellfield Public School in Sydney's south-west, where the school population has doubled during her six years in the job.
The 43 Indigenous students enrolled at the school exceeds the state's average of 8 per cent.
ABC News: Nakari Thorpe
)Implementing Indigenous culture and history into the curriculum has drawn increased enrolments from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families out of the area.
"We've only seen it continue to grow," she said.
"In fact, our kindergarten, year 1 and year 2 enrolments are our strongest enrolments."
She says the school aims to teach children they can use their voice and be "change agents" despite where they grew up.
"It doesn't matter that you're living in a low socio-economic community. In fact, they're our strengths," she said.
"They can be lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers. [We're] setting up a culture and community that really allows that to thrive and flourish for our kids."
ABC News: Nakari Thorpe
)The school runs regular culture classes, yarning circles, and it recently launched its Junior Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, which gives students a say on the Aboriginal syllabus.
But Nicole's work in the school community took time for some family members to realise. She remembers telling her uncle the day she was going to become a teacher.
"He said, Why would you do that? You don't [want to] become a teacher,' because schools were the places that took our culture from us," she said.
Over the years, though, Nicole has shown her uncle that schools can be a culturally safe space.
"He sees the work that I've done, he sees that our kids are going to school, where they have high expectations but their culture won't be lost. In fact, it will be a place where it gives culture back," she said.
And she continues to harness the strength of children who were just like her.
"I want to make sure that every single child is valued as an individual and all of the things they bring about themselves —whether or not they're Aboriginal — their cultural backgrounds and their diversity is shared and used from a strength-based approach," she said.
"That is what your power is. That's your superpower."
