The next ninety years will demand a ready adaptability to change, an acceptance of the responsibility that goes with privilege, tolerance and idealism with fanaticism. We need ‘long distance characters’ more than ever.

• Dodo Pitt on the occasion of St Mary’s ninetieth anniversary

Khanyisa replaces the Pitt Block, built in 1989 and named after Dorothea Pitt, headmistress of St Mary’s School Waverley from 1974 to 1988. As a child, she could not pronounce her name. The name Dodo stuck and became part of her identity.

Dodo was a visionary teacher and headmistress who guided the school with wisdom, compassion and courage. Despite her shy demeanour, she made decisions that were out of step with the injustices of a society engineered by apartheid South Africa.

The dodo, a strange flightless bird from Mauritius, became extinct in the 1600s with the arrival of people on the island. They hunted the dodo, destroyed its habitat and introduced predators. The last dodo was seen in 1662. Even though the dodo is often depicted as heavy and slow, scientists argue that it was quick and agile.

In this artwork, I imagine Dodo Pitt as a dynamic incarnation of the bird of legend, taking flight, escaping extinction and bravely launching itself into an uncertain future. It is a deliberately quirky image, embracing the lightness of spirit for which Dodo was known and loved.

The future is always uncertain. Our time has its own crises, not least climate change. This artwork pays tribute to a leader who was guided by humour, courage and imagination in the hope that it will inspire tomorrow’s leaders, who inhabit this building, to do the same.

Artist: Hannelie Coetzee, 2023