Backbencher

The cultural landscape of Australia has been in constant flux since the white man has entered upon it. In 1931, the journey of three young Aborigine girls changed to face of Australian and world culture forever. Daisy, Gracie, and Molly were half-caste girls in the North West region of Australia. Their fathers worked on stations along the Rabbit-Proof fence and their mothers were native of the land. Public policy recently administered by the white governments required all half-caste children to be removed from their homes and placed in boarding schools in southern Australia. Once at the school, and unbeknownst to the families, the girls would be trained as domestic help and passed out to local farms in the southern region.

Rabbit Proof Fence follows the journey of Daisy, Gracie, and Molly as they escape from their school and travel north along the Rabbit-Proof Fence in an attempt to get home to Jigalong. Through perils country and ever-changing climate and landscape, the three young girls hunt and beg their way from homestead to homestead and rabbit burrow to rabbit burrow, until almost nine weeks later they arrive to their families outstretched arms.

This book is important in the study of Australia because it heightens the awareness of the English conquest and shows the perils and lengths a people will go to protect and maintain their identity whether it be Aboriginal, white, or half-caste. These young girls knew nothing of the land they traversed, but they knew how to traverse it. With only hunting and survival skills these girls navigated themselves to the only place they knew as home. This book provides a deep insight into the strength of personal identity across the Australian outback. The book is really lacking nothing. It has the heartfelt emotion along with the suspense. It was a quick and easy read, one that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone.

My next step is going to be comparing the book and events in the book with the movie. I'll keep you posted on the developments as to what is left out or changed.