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Rabbit-Proof Fence
by Lady Silence (Intermediate 1E, 2007-08)

"RABBIT-PROOF FENCE" is the name of a film I haver watched recently, whose plot and photography really caught me.

It's a 2002 Australian drama film directed by Phillip Noyce and filmed by Christopher Doyle, both Australian.

It was filmed on location in Australia and starred by Aboriginal actresses.

It's based on a book written by Doris Pilikintong Garimara. It's about the author's mother and two other young Aboriginal girls, who ran away from a native settlement to return to their Aboriginal families after being placed there in 1931.

The film follows the girls as they walk for nine weeks along 1.500 miles of the Australian rabbit-proof fence (a pest-exclusion fence, constructed between 1901 and 1903 to keep the rabbits pest of Western of Australian pastoral areas), to return to their community while being tracked by a white authority figure, the protector of Aborigines responsible for removing the girls from their families, and a black tracker.

The film was part of a major debate in contemporary Australia over the stolen generations where Aboriginal children separated from their parents by the State were taken to residencial schools, forced to learn English languange and then compelled to work for white families like slaves.

The soundtrack was composed by Peter Gabriel and called it "Long Walk Home".

On the 13th of February 2008 the Australian government offered a fomal apology to the stolen generations.

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Hey, Lady Silence, let's prepare a webpage on this film for our section Movies! You could select some YouTube videos, there are tons! And we could link to the American Indian webpage too.