Follow The Rabbit-Proof Fence

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Aboriginal Australians were the first people on the continent arriving from Asia more than 40,000 years ago. Although there are many Aboriginal groups with their own languages, values and culture they all seem to have some practices in common including a close relationship with the earth and rich tradition of oral story telling. The British set up their first official camp in Eastern Australia (1788) and soon after they travelled to Western Australia claiming Aboriginal lands as their own. Aboriginals resisted European control but their resistance was violently repressed leading to many being imprisoned or exploited. For a hundred years Aboriginal people in Western Australia continuously resisted the invasion of their lands by white settlers.…show more content…
Most disturbing, the report testified that children were chosen on the basis of their skin colour. Lighter half-castes were targeted on the grounds that they could be 'saved' by intensive Europeanization and eventual absorption into pure white society. The film ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ (2002) is based on the book by Doris Pilkington ‘Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence’ (1969) and tells the true story of three Aboriginal Australian girls: Molly 14 years old, her sister Daisy 10 years old and their cousin Gracie 8 years old. It depicts an indigenous Australian’s family experience as members of the ‘Stolen Generation’ as they are forcibly removed from their home. Thousands of children were taken from their homes by the government and place into settlements etc. The young are taken to the Moore River Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia-taken there to train them to become servants for the white settlers. Many of these children never saw their parents again. The film follows their dramatic escape and their 2,400 km walk home following the rabbit-proof fence…show more content…
The director manages to capture Australia’s landscape with an almost masterful manner. The viewer is able to see and feel the serenity on Molly’s face as she simply stands still and listens to the animal’s sounds coming from the background. At the same time, the light of the sun hits her face in a very artistic way, almost like a moving painting. We cannot hear anything but the wind rustling through the trees. Such moments allow powerful emotions to come rushing out of the screen at various moments in the film. A beautiful scene unfolds as we see the girls hunting with the mothers in Jigalong a remote area which they live in. Their mothers are showing them the ways of survival as they teach them how to hunt and track which will prove to be essential means later in the film. It will prove much more essential than what the white people were set out to teach the girls. The women are trying to teach their young girls and pass down the knowledge they have received from past generations. Molly learns a lot more that the other girls as she is the oldest. He mother tells her about the ‘spirit bird’ that will always take care of her. Meanwhile a white man on his horse observes the family interaction from afar as if they are wild animals. It seems that the community of Jigalong have a system in place that works out fine as they have managed to survive in these kind of circumstances for centuries. Although the family is
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