The tension and contradiction here, of course, is that while Indigenous teachers are often positioned as serving the needs of the school, and asked to ameliorate difficult relationships between Indigenous homes and school, this work is often understood as a necessary peripheral to the real business of teaching children official curriculum. This can often lead to Indigenous teachers being seen primarily or, at worst only, as Indigenous, rather than as teachers, and therefore concerned exclusively with the needs of Indigenous students and Indigenous issues in the school. In her first year of teaching, Claire is already aware of this: