The girls walked km as they backtracked and walked in circles to cleverly evade trackers and police. We walked at the pace the girls walked, completing between km per day. We walked this walk and are sharing our story with the blessing and support of Molly and Daisy's descendants, the Pilkington family. We liaised with the Traditional Owners of the land we passed through for their permission to do so. We had relevant permits. We liaised with the station owners whose properties the walk route passes through. Molly, Gracie and Daisy completed a heroic feat at a young age.
They demonstrate the courage of women and their ability to achieve anything for their purpose and what they love, in this case, family and home. This walk is an invitation for us all to follow the rabbit proof fence and learn about the role we can all play in reconciliation in Australia today. Paperback , pages.
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I can't read the book as in where do i read it on the website? Julia I don't think you can read the book on the website. See all 4 questions about Rabbit-Proof Fence…. Lists with This Book. I am enjoying the book a lot for it's intellectual honesty as well as it's writing, rather than manipulation of emotions. It's looking like it's going to be a 5 star book, but was only a 2 star movie. I watched the film the other night. I felt totally manipulated the whole time.
It made me wonder if the director's other job wasn't making Middle East propaganda documentaries. Plus atmospheric lighting an I am enjoying the book a lot for it's intellectual honesty as well as it's writing, rather than manipulation of emotions. Plus atmospheric lighting and wonderful camera-work. Although the cast were Aborigines, the director was a white Australian. Full of historical guilt no doubt. Still I'm sure the popularity of it helped assuage that and the money he made, well he didn't give any of it to any Aboriginal support projects.
It was only a commercial enterprise to him. The emotion was for us. Here are two examples of the manipulation. The first is that the girls in the film are dragged away from their mother very violently and thrust into a car. The father, a white man, is said to be long gone. The book says that actually the parents were still together and when the authorities came to take the children to the school, it was with force of law not violence.
The mother who was still with the father of the children, then left him because he was frightened to stand up to the authorities as he might go to prison. But now I'm reading the book. The author is the daughter of the main character of the film. Her book is a great deal more nuanced than the film made of it. The film is all black and white, good and bad, the book is shades and colours, the good as well as the bad, but without ever forgetting the whole enterprise of the white man in Australia has been to deprive Aborigines of everything they wanted for themselves.
It seems very little different now. A bit like American Indians. One wonders why they make a fuss about some people in the world wanting to return to their ancestral lands but ignore what goes on at home? View all 17 comments. Sep 10, Richard Derus rated it liked it. This extraordinary story of courage and faith is based on the actual experiences of three girls who fled from the repressive life of Moore River Native Settlement, following along the rabbit-proof fence back to their homelands. Assimilationist policy dictated that these girls be taken from their kin and their homes in order to be made white.
Settlement life was unbearable with its chains and padlocks, barred windows, hard cold beds, and horrible food. Solitary confinement was doled out as regular punishment. The girls were not even allowed to speak their language. Of all the journeys made since white people set foot on Australian soil, the journey made by these girls born of Aboriginal mothers and white fathers speaks something to everyone. Doris Pilkington's father was a cowardly white man who failed to protect his three half-Aboriginal daughters from the colonial mentality espousing their forced removal from their parents.
Their mother left the cad, good on her, and was still powerless to act against the white government to get her daughters out of their "residential school" where they were maltreated. The aim of their removal from Aboriginal society was to prevent them from passing on the values of their society, instead becoming darker-skinned white people. Oh, and not just that, but inferior servant-class white people. Can't imagine where the Aussies got such a horrible idea. Nor where the South Africans got the idea for apartheid. No relation to the American policies on Native peoples or former slaves.
That sarcasm out of the way, I will remark that the story is presented as a novel despite the fact that Pilkington aka Garimara was writing about her very own mother's story. It freed her to write about the details of the girls' experiences, ones she must have heard from her mother's own lips, without the burden of fact-checking or documenting things that were never written down or part of any official record in the first event. The prose isn't stellar.
In fact it's pretty clunky. I enjoyed the Aboriginal words used without explanation, since there was a handy-dandy glossary in the back of the book; I didn't want the author to lead me by my lily-white hand to the Promised Land of Otherness. I expect that my rating would've been a lot lower had she done that. I was simply dropped into the otherness, as Molly and her sisters were. It's a good technique, effectively putting the reader into the shoes of scared children. In the end, the experience of reading the book was better than the book itself. What a weird sentence that is; I know I must sound like a raving loonie.
But what I mean by that is that this is a truly important and continually relevant depressingly tale of oppression and victimization based on ethnic difference. It just isn't a particularly well-written one. And still it makes a strong impression on the reader, one that means something inside shifts a bit, hopefully in a positive direction.
I'd suggest reading it to anyone who thinks the segregation of an ethnic minority is in any way a good idea. It's got some areas where it's a bit better than the book, and some lovely cinematography. The book and the film are best enjoyed together. How unusual is that! View all 5 comments. Nov 09, Whitney Atkinson rated it it was ok Shelves: I'd like to read more about Aboriginals, but this wasn't done very well in my opinion and since the author is the daughter of this woman, it was hard to suspend my disbelief in order to read this and all of the little details she inserted.
View all 8 comments. Jun 06, Diane rated it really liked it Shelves: Doris Pilkington wrote this memoir after hearing the stories of her mother, Molly, and her aunts, Gracie and Daisy. Pilkington begins the book by sharing some history of the Aboriginal people in Australia, and over the generations we see how the British colonialists stole their land, killed them, starved them, and forced the natives to move into government-approved Years ago I saw the excellent movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, and GR friend Brendon reminded me that it was based on this remarkable book.
Pilkington begins the book by sharing some history of the Aboriginal people in Australia, and over the generations we see how the British colonialists stole their land, killed them, starved them, and forced the natives to move into government-approved zones.
Similar to how the American settlers forced the Indians to march along the Trail of Tears to their relocation area in Oklahoma. Policies were introduced by the government in an effort to improve the welfare and educational needs of these children. Molly, Gracie and Daisy were completely unaware that they were to be included in the schemes designed for children who were fathered by white men. Their mothers were accused of being promiscuous.
A few critics were honest, however, when they said many white men satisfied their lustful desires with the native women until they were able to return to white society. The description of when Molly was taken away was gut-wrenching. Her mother and relatives wailed and moaned, and Molly also wept. The settlement, which was basically an internment camp, was operated by the government as a way to educate the mixed race Aboriginal children.
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So the half-caste children were taken away from their native families and forced to assimilate to English ways, all for the privilege of someday doing menial labor. The inmates, not students, slept on cyclone beds with government-issue blankets. There were no sheets or pillow slips except on special occasions when there was an inspection by prominent officials. Then they were removed as soon as the visitors left the settlement and stored away until the next visit.
On the windows there were no colourful curtains, just wire screens and iron bars. It looked more like a concentration camp than a residential school for Aboriginal children. Molly and her sisters walked more than 1, miles, barefoot and with little food, and made it home to their families. Molly was a good leader and knew the land well; she was skilled at making camp, at hunting for food and at covering their tracks.
The sections on the girls' escape and journey were gripping, and even though I knew the ending because I had seen the film, I was completely engrossed. It would be difficult for an adult without the most thorough knowledge of bushcraft not to become disoriented and lost in a strange part of the country where the landscape is filled with thick undergrowth and without the sun to guide the way.
Well, Molly, this year-old girl, had no fear because the wilderness was her kin. It always provided shelter, food and sustenance. She had learned and developed bushcraft skills and survival techniques from an expert, her step-father, a former nomad from the desert. But the sisters managed to stay ahead of the officers and made it home safely.
Pilkington includes an epilogue that tells what happened to the sisters they had long lives and big families and a helpful glossary of Mardujara words, which was the language Molly and her sisters spoke. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the history of Australia, Aboriginal culture, or if you just like a good story about a prison escape and a walkabout.
Just as the British are probably touchy about how their ancestors colonized every other continent. Yes, all of this history is soul-crushing. But it's also important. In the sociology class I teach, I have an in-depth lecture on racism throughout world history, and I'm often amazed at the number of college freshmen who didn't know that racism wasn't just an American problem -- it's a global problem. It's a human problem. I read these books to bear witness. View all 15 comments. This is recent history. I hope they co 4.
I hope they continue to work. If not, I hope someone will post new ones as comments. There is a map in the front of the book to show how far this was. It is a straight-forward story, told in the third person without a lot of embellishment, but with descriptions of the bush, catching rabbits, and the rain and mud. And Thomas was happy and named the baby. But in the cases of the Aboriginal children, moves were not into nearby family foster care but into European-style institutions where they were to be cut off from all family contact and told to speak only English.
And of course they were to live in dormitories and be trained in simple trades, not raised and educated as white children were. The government official who knew the families could see that the girls were better with them in spite of the teasing or bullying, much the way community services try these days to keep families together and help the family. Molly was 15, Gracie was 11, and Daisy was 9. They arrived, by boat sailing down the coast no tracks to follow home on 27 July By 11 August , the West Australian announced: Molly had good bush sense, but the bush itself and the bush tucker was different from that at home.
She was counting on finding the fence to the east of them and then following it north. They knew that once they reached Bil-lanooka Station, it was simply a matter of following the rabbit-proof fence to their final destination, the Jigalong government depot; the desert outpost of the white man. The fence cut through the country from south to north. It was a typical response to a problem of their own making.
Building a fence to keep the rabbits out proved to be a futile attempt by the government of the day. For the three runaways, the fence was a symbol of love, home and security. Molly cleverly made sure they arrived at stations from one direction and left by another, so the owners would never really know where they came from or where they were going. They were by turns cold and hot, wet, bone-weary, and had festering sores on their legs from the bush scratches.
This was no picnic. It is worth reading for that alone. View all 11 comments. Mar 09, Sharon rated it really liked it Shelves: This story is set in Western Australia during the 's. Along with these girls there are many other half cast children who are also removed from their families where they are taken to state run facilities. The children are locked into schools with bars on the windows and locks on the doors. Not long after arriving, Molly knows she mu This story is set in Western Australia during the 's.
Not long after arriving, Molly knows she must find a way to escape. The girls are distraught and desperately want to be back home with their families.
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It doesn't take long for Molly to find that escape route and before they know it the girls on their way and trying to find their way home. Of course they had no idea how far or how long this would take. They will trek over miles and with each day they push themselves even though they are exhausted, hungry, and in a lot of pain. Along the way they will meet other Aborigines who help them by giving them a few things such as meat and matches.
In the first few chapters we are given the history and background of the Aboriginal culture which I found quite interesting. This is an amazing story of survival, determination, and courage which I found very inspiring. I really enjoyed this book and I have no hesitation in recommending it.
Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence
View all 7 comments. Sep 16, K. Pilkington then rewrote and filled out Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence following several years of interviewing her mother and aunt, and it was published in Molly, her half-sister Daisy and their cousin Gracie are taken to Moore River for schooling to become more like a white person and to eventually be taken to a more rural part of Western Australia. The girls escaped from the Settlement and took the 1,km walk home. Shortly after the book's publication, the film rights were obtained by scriptwriter Christine Olsen, who wrote the script and was persistent in her pitching of the film to Hollywood -based Australian director Phillip Noyce.
Noyce agreed to direct the film, which was released in and starred Everlyn Sampi as Molly, and British actor Kenneth Branagh as A.
Rabbit-Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time
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