The Rabbit Proof Fence

Rabbit Proof Fence is a touching in depth story about the survival and the will to go on as 3 young girls attempt to escape all odds and walk 1500 miles back to their hometown. The movie starts off with the three girls Molly, Gracie and Daisy interacting with their family on their homeland of Jigalong. The girls are than abruptly taken from their family and brought far away to the Moore River Native settlement. The kidnapping of the girls are orchestrated by the governments which under policy are able to forcibly remove half caste children from their families.

Upon arriving the children become part of the native settlement learning the ways of the white Australians running the camp. Shortly after their arrival the girls led by Molly bravely escape from the camp and head on the 1500 mile walk back in search of their homeland. The girls are able to walk on the journey for the majority undetected through numerous deceitful events. Its unbelievable that the girls are able to find their way back Jigalong without encountering the tracker or the police set out looking for them during their 9 week journey. The movie is based on the stolen generation as the identity of many of the children and the native settlement were lost due to education and different beliefs.

I feel in certain aspects this film is a good educational ethnographic film.

It lacks in certain areas explaining the importance of exact information pertaining to the cultures represented in the film. All that is describes is the symbol of the fence and the inability for the half caste society to control what is done to them. Without the family consent the girls are abruptly kidnapped. The society lives without any of the advantages of the white Australian society. Mr. Neville is the head of the Moore River Native Settlement. It is his choice who is taken to this camp. He views the people of Jigalong as his problem and tries to help them by brining them to the camp.

The Jigalong natives aren't spoiled with the materialist necessities that the white Australians possess. The Australian feel their culture is egocentric or better than the others. At the Moore River Camp the children are treated like part animal part slave. They are told when to eat, what to say, what to do, rules to follow and basically ideas to think. The Jigalong natives are content on how their culture is and how their society is run. They feel there is no need for the ideas and materials needed in the white society.

The ethnic group portrayed in the film seems to come from a biased standpoint. The director of the film definitely set out to make the audience view the white Australians as bad people. The director used sharp scenes to show the children being whipped and slaved into ideas. He wanted to instill a genocide idea as the camp main purpose was to eliminate the culture and traditions of the half caste people. Then he used scenes or sadness and