Backbencher

The film Rabbit Proof Fence is about three young Aboriginal girls in Australia during the early 1930s. These three girls, though Aborigines, their fathers were all Euro-Australian men who had been working on the rabbit proof fence. The fence runs across the continent. During the 1930s until the 1970s, these children of "mixed" blood were taken from their families and placed in orphanages. It was the belief that by the third generation, that the Aborigine blood could be bred out of the decedents of the "mixed" blood. The three girls, Molly, Daisy and Gracie were taken from their mothers after their fathers had moved on to continue on the fence. Once they were placed in their orphanage, Molly decided that they were going to escape and walk back to their families. The only problem was outsmarting and outrunning the Aborigine tracker. The three young girls managed to get away and stay clear after a few close calls of being caught by the tracker. A few people along the way managed to help the girls the best they could by providing some food and shelter. One man was paid to trick the girls into going to a train station to meet their mothers. Gracie left Molly and Daisy and was caught and taken back to the orphanage. Molly and Daisy did make it back to their family and hid out in the desert to prevent having to go to the orphanage. The amazing feat was that they had crossed over 1500 miles of the Australian outback by foot. This film was definitely heart wrenching. From the emotion of the mothers and grandmothers loosing their children to the girls in the orphanage being forever separate from their families, this film portrayed a true story of a shameful, recent history in Australia. At the end of the film, Molly narrates that after hiding in the desert she married and had children of her own. She had made that same journey after she had been caught later in life for the second time. For her own misfortune, her very own daughter was taken from her the same way she was from her mother.