Rabbit Proof Fence

"Rabbit-Proof Fence"

Summary: An overview of the ways in which the film "Rabbit-Proof Fence" conveys the importance of home, family, and country to indigenous peoples.

The film "Rabbit-Proof Fence" conveys the importance of home and country to indigenous peoples. The director Phillip Noyce refers to home in different ways. He has symbolised home by repeatedly showing images of the Spirit Bird and the Rabbit Proof Fence, since it is a connection to their home. The movie shows Molly's determination to get home and back to her family by escaping from Moore River and finding her way back home to her country, Jigalong.

At the beginning of the film, it is shown how Molly's family hunt for food and use their bush skills in their culture, to survive in their home land, while speaking their own language, doing what they do in their community. Their community have their own civilisation and get taught their own lessons of their past generation of stories. Molly's mother tells her about these stories, in which they call "Dream Time Stories" in which the Spirit Bird comes from. Molly is told that the Spirit Bird will always look down on her and protect her, however this is different at Moore River, where they couldn't do what they were brought up to do. "You don't speak that Jabba here, this is your new home, you speak English!"

During the film, it shows us motifs of the "Spirit Bird" and how it gives Molly inspiration, when she sees it her dreams when at Moore River, which made her want to run away back home. This is such a symbolic connection between her and her home land. Also near the end of the long journey where she is struggling to get home, she sees the Spirit Bird fly over her, which gives her the determination to keep going to get home to her family, and not to give up.

Culture plays an important role for the indigenous people, and their love and care for their land. They kill animals only for their survival. They have much respect for their land, and their love for it is very strong. Their community has different beliefs and theories of how their land is created and how they should live life in their environment.

In this film, it also shows how important their loved ones