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Rabbit-Proof Fence, 2002,
94 minutes, Rated PG
By Carla Robinson
In
1901, the Australian government began installing what would become
the longest fence in the world. The fence would span the length of
the continent, and, hopefully, would effectively serve its purpose
-- to keep an out of control rabbit population from advancing onto
farmland. Interestingly, rabbits were foreign to Australia and had
originally been imported by British men of leisure to be hunted as
sport. The "rabbit-proof fence," which began as a simple
solution to a man-made problem, took seven years to complete and
many more to maintain. That span of time is insignificant when
compared to the long-term impact the fence had on the lives of
Australia's Aboriginal people.
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During the period of construction and maintenance
of the fence, the European laborers who worked on it availed
themselves of the Aboriginal women who lived in the areas along its
route. Some of the men remained with their new families; the majority
did not. The result was generations of fatherless
"half-caste" and "quarter-caste" children, a
"third race" that the Australian government felt should not
exist.
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Almost as quickly as the so-called
problem arose, the government enacted a plan of removal and relocation
for these children, believing that they would be better off being
integrated into white society where they could intermarry and breed
the black out of their lineage. And where, meanwhile, they could be
farm hands and servants to white families. For 90 percent of the
female children who were relocated, white society would also function
as a place where they would be sexually molested and impregnated by
the men they worked for.
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In order to make them suitable for
integration, "reorientation centers" were created. These
were camps where the children were taken and forced to attend church,
learn English, and practice the skills they would use as servants.
According to a 1997 Australian government report, between 1901 and
1971, the years the removal policy was carried out, 100,000 Aboriginal
children were sent to such camps. These children became known as the
Stolen Generations.
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Molly Craig and her younger sister Daisy
are now the most famous members of the Stolen Generations, thanks to
director Philip Noyce's luminous Rabbit-Proof Fence (based on the
excellent book by Molly's youngest daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara).
The women, who are still alive, are immortalized in the film. Set in
1931, Rabbit-Proof Fence joins a 14-year-old Molly (splendid newcomer
Everlyn Sampi), 8-year-old Daisy (Tianna Sansbury) and their
10-year-old cousin, Gracie (Laura Monaghan), as they are pried from
their home in Jigalong, a depot along the fence, and taken to the
Moore River Native Settlement.
The film chronicles their humiliating experiences there and Molly's
bold decision that they must escape and follow the rabbit-proof fence
to find their way home. Most beautifully, it depicts the astonishing
journey that found Molly leading the girls through a perilous
1500-mile trek. Three months after they set out, Molly and Daisy
reached home, without Gracie. Their homecoming is triumphant but
bittersweet, especially we when learn that it would not be the last
such journey for Molly Craig.
M
May 2003
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