Week 6

Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence

After reading Rabbit Proof Fence, I thought it was an exceptionally eye opening story of the ways in which aboriginal people in Australia were viewed during this time period. The book tells the story of Molly Craig who was deemed to be a ‘Half Cast “ by the Australian government. As a result of this Molly was taken by police officers from her mother and her family, in the name of eugenics. The main goal of the eugenics movement in Australia at his time was to essentially attempt to eliminate the genes of aboriginal people by forcing half casts to be assimilated in to white Australian culture, and copulate with white individuals, there by drastically reducing the aboriginal blood line in subsequent generations. Molly along with her sister Daisy and cousin Gracie were all taken well over one thousand kilometers across the continent to attend a Native Settlement. In this settlement the main goal was to achieve assimilation. That is, the government attempted to strip these children of their cultures, and forcefully introduce them to the ways of the western world. Shortly after their arrival in sometime in 1931, these three young women successfully escaped from this settlement and tried to navigate the Australian terrain in an attempt to return to their homes, which was over one thousand miles away. It is absolutely amazing that these three girls were able to navigate such a long distance without any sort of map. They used to rabbit proof fence, which was constructed, as a means of keeping rabbits and other animals that could prove detrimental to agricultural production, out of Western Australia. It is almost unbelievable that these three girls were successfully able to return home by using this fence as their guide. Even more amazing was that the author of this novel. Doris Pilkington wrote this story in response to her mother’s story: Molly Craig. It is quite apparent that the events of this time period and the actions taken by the Australian government were directly responsible for tearing apart countless families in the name of race. In class when we viewed the apology, I initially thought it was sincere, but at that time it was hard to visualize the extraordinary effect these policies had on families; therefore, looking back on the apology I now feel it was rather inadequate. I really don’t think that after what the government has put these people through, that simply saying “I am sorry” is enough. The fact that the government deliberately tried to destroy the culture of native Australians, and to essentially breed their genes out of the population’s gene pool will resonate with these people for countless generations.