Rabbit-proof Fence

Overview

Australia is a fairly young country and was only discovered a little over 300 years ago. The native Australians, the Aborigines had to go through a lot over the course of Australia's discovery and constant new settlements and increasing immigration over time. Rabbit Proof Fence is a movie based on a real life story of three Half caste Aborigine girls. It is about their treatment as Half caste's Aborigines in the new white Australia. This wiki relates Rabbit proof fence to the real situation of Aborigines in Australia. Considering the Legislation and Policies of Australia and the Methods used to exercise them. Comparing the terminology used in the movie to real life Australia.

History

1600's

• 1606- The Dutch were the first to discover the land of 'Australia'. A Dutchman named Willem Janszoon sailed into Australia and landed up at Duyfken (Little Dove). He is known to be the first to have ever dealt with the Aborigines. Louis Vaez de Torres, another Dutch captain visited Australia later that year through the Torres Strait, which is named after him.
• 1642- Abel Tasman was another Dutch explorer, who reached Australia and concluded that Australia is made of four coasts: East, West, North and South. The state of Tasmania is named after him.

By this time, the Dutch, French and the English had known of Australia, but no plans were made to make any sorts of settlements.

1700's

• 1770- The British Royal Navy planned an expedition called Endeavour and prepared Captain James Cook for Australia. On April 29, Captain James Cook landed on the East Coast of Australia, Sydney in particular, at Botany Bay. He claimed the East Coastline and named it New South Wales, which is still a state today. Since he was British, his claim of the land led to British Settlements.
• 1778- On January 26th Captain Arthur Phillip created a penal colony in New South Wales. With the arrival of the first fleet of ships, this was the first settlement in Australia.

1800's & 1900's

• 1829- The British claimed the western part of Australia and named it Swan River Colony, later known as Western Australia. Initially The British mainly used the land of Australia for convicts and prisoners. Australia being completely sea locked was safe for prisoners, as there was no chance for them to escape. Many prisoners were later even used for labor due to shortage.
• 1836-63 - New South Wales was further divided up into various provinces of South Australia, New Zealand, Victoria, Queensland and Northern Territory.

• 1838- Myall Creek Massacre: On June 10, twenty eight Aborigines were murdered by twelve British prisoners in New South Wales. Seven of the prisoners were held guilty by Government. This was the first time that White people had been convicted for hurting Aborigines. Smaller incidents in the past were payed no attention too. However, this action wasn't accepted by the white Australian public. Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian newspaper quoted "the whole gang of black animals are not worth the money the colonists will have to pay for printing the silly court documents on which we have already wasted too much time".

• 1851 - 1900's- Gold was founded in Australia and immigrants from all over Britain, Europe, North America and Ireland came to Australia. The governments of the six provinces became stronger and more responsible as the number of immigrants increased and so did their responsibility.

As more and more colonies were set up, development became a must. British prisoners weren't the only one's working as labor. Aborigines were forced to work too. The Indigenous Australians had a very distinctive life style, which was far too complex for the European Explorers to understand. As development picked up speed, the Aborigines were pushed around to neighboring states. The Gold Rush only made things worse for the Aborigines. Higher number of immigrants meant more development, therefore lesser room for Aborigines. If the Aborigine way of life was strange for the Europeans, so was European lifestyle for the Aborigines. When the Europeans came to Australia, they brought along with them diseases, which the Aborigines couldn't bare and many died. Small incidents and massacres became common all through Australia. Not many convicts, who were responsible for the massacres were punished.

• 1884 - Battle Mountain was another spot where the massacres took place. Over 200 Aborigines died and it is believed to be co-relational with the increasing immigrants.

• 1928 - Coniston is cattle town in province of Northern Territory, where 31 Aborigines were killed in a massacre. Supposedly, the Aborigines had killed one of the white hunters initially, in response to which the white people killed 31 Aborigines.

• 1869- 1970's - STOLEN GENERATION

The government of Australia started passing laws that gave Australian government officials the authority of take away "half- caste" (those with one white parent and one Aborigine) children away from their parents. This may be with or without the consent of the parents. Children could be taken at any age, many were taken at birth. They were taken to European institutions or communities, where they learned the European lifestyle. Walter Baldwin Spencer, a British- Australian biologists and anthropologists believed the purpose of child removal policies was different. He claimed that many that many half castes infants and children were found unclaimed during the construction of The Ghan railway. The policy was introduced to protect such children and prevent such cases from happening in the future. However, most other people believe otherwise. The White government of Australia wanted to "breed out" the Aborigine blood out of them and forever remove the existence of Aborigines from the face of earth. The "stolen" children were taught to believe the Aborigine blood to be inferior to the white blood. In the movie, Rabbit Proof Fence, one of the older girls at the Moore River Settlement described the boy selected by the chief as superior to her and the rest left behind. The children who were white enough were selected and sent to white families, where they learned European etiquette and were believed to receive better opportunities than they would staying in Aborigine families.

The Stolen Generation of Australia is often compared to the Genocides in Nazi Germany. The Nazi's wanted the Jews to extinct. In Munich, July 1922, in a speech, Hitler referred to the Jews as "exploiter", "robbers" and accused them of destroying civilization. Nazi Germany wanted the existence of Jews to be "forgotten". So were the ambitions Europeans held against Aborigines. They wanted to "breed out the color" of the Aborigines, such that they would be forgotten forever. A genocide is defined as death in masses. Constant massacres and "breeding out" of Aborigine blood would eventually lead the Aborigines to "die out"; hence, genocide. However, people such as Conservative Australian historian and Paul Bartrop (author of "Definition of Genocide") believe otherwise. They do admit the attempts made to "breed out" the Aborigine blood was crazy, but don't regard them as genocide.

While we debate over The Stolen Generation being the same as the genocides in Nazi Germany, Andrew Bolt, a conservative journalist raises the question of the existence of the Stolen Generation at all. His argument questions the term "Stolen" used for the kind of removal of children. There is a difference between stolen and taken for legitimate reasons in his argument. But we can question him back, asking what reasons can be legitimate enough to steal someone's child.

Vanity of the Philosopher - The laws that were passed out, were to "protect" the Aborigines. The Aborigines had a distinctive lifestyle, often described as "barbaric", had no sense of government and were far behind in development. They had even failed to develop the most basic invention of "the wheel". Since they had so much to learn, they needed to be protected, as believed by the British Government. But when stating the Aborigines needed protection, the White people automatically consider the Aborigines as inferior to them. If they are capable enough to "teach" the Aborigines, they are better than them and are in this case the "Philosopher", hence, better than the "Street porter" (Aborigines). The two are exactly same and birth and its the history, incentives and circumstances that variates them, but the 'vanity of the philosopher' won't let the philosopher admit to that. The British Government regarded themselves as superior and wouldn't see the Aborigines on the same level as them. Therefore, they passed laws and attempted to "breed out" the "Black" from them.

But were the Aborigines really "protected"? Did they really receive better living standards? Were the children educated more than the one's that weren't "protected"? Studying show no real difference academically between the Aborigine children who were "stolen" and taken to institutions and the one's that weren't. The education given to Half Caste Aborigines was lower than what the children of white families received. The food and living standard were low. Some children were sent to white families to be taken care of, while the others who didn't qualify were sent at slaves. According to the White Australian Government, it was better for Half Caste's children to be Slaves in white families and learn from them, rather than being free in the Aborigine world. They were afraid the Half Caste's children will behave like Aborigines if left loose, and their mission of Aborigines "dieing out" would fail.

Thomas Carlyle - The statement, "Slavery in a white house is better than left loose in the Aborigine society" sounds similar to Thomas Carlyle's viewpoint towards the Black man - "slavery will let you free". In his opinion, a Black man was happy being a Slave in a White house than being left alone. The Black man will ultimately achieve the "Joy in Work". Just the way the Black man will find joy in work in a white family, according to the White Australian Government, the Aborigine will be better off slaving his life for a white man.

• 1942 - Statute of Westminister is an act that separated the British Empire from the United Kingdom. The British was from now on regarded at the same level as the United Kingdom. Australia was a part of the British Empire and was now constitutionaly independent from the UK. After the British were out, Australia now had fear from the Japanese, for which it turned to USA for help.

• After 1945 - After the World War II, about 2 million immigrants arrived in Australia from all over the world. Many new jobs were created and the country's economy was booming. Living standards were going up, but not for the Aborigines. One would expect the increasing numbers in employment opportunities to be able to accommodate some Aborigines, but that wasn't the case. The world may have developed, but the mentality stayed the same, Aborigines were inferior and had to be treated that way. Increasing number of immigration didn't help the Aborigines and their numbers were still in a downfall.

• 1962 - Aborigines were allowed to vote for the first time ever for the Commonwealth of Australia. Here onwards standing of the Aborigines started getting better in the country. They were given rights to vote and were given the status of Australian Nationals. However, some Aborigines refuse to identify themselves as Australian citizens, as they fear this would lead to the total loss of the Aboriginal culture and identity.

CURRENT DAY

• 26 May 1998 - "National Sorry Day"

John Howard's government passed a report which formally apologized to the Aborigines for the mistreatment they had had to bare in the past years. This was against the policy of John Howard's as he believed that the current generation should not have to apologize for the mistakes of the past generation. However, a National Sorry Day was held for the first time on May 26th and over a million people attended the event.

• 2008 - On February 13th Prime Minister Rudd's Apologized to the Aborigines for all that the Australian Government did against the goodwill of Aborigines. The specific speech is as follows:

“ Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.we say sorryBold text

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, .

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry..... cont.

The Australian Government may apologize all they desire, but the hundreds of thousands of lost Aborigines will not come back. The numbers have decreased drastically than what were earlier, and now they are only a minority group in Australia. They had to suffer a lot of illegal discrimination, as even before and after the laws were passes, the insane discriminatory practices were exercised. Even today in many area's, the minimum wage for Aborigines stay lower than that of a white Australian. The Aborigine unemployment rate is 5-6 times higher than that of the National rate.

Terminology

• Half Castes - A person that is half Aborigine and half white. This person was generally a product of forced sexual intercourse by white men on Aborigine Women.

• Stolen Generation - The children (generation of them) that were forced to forgo their Aborigine inheritance, by the Australian Government.

• Full blood - A person who completely of one ethnic background by blood. In this case a complete white or complete Aborigine was defined as Full Blood.

• White Status - This was when a half caste or anyone with even a slight Aborigine blood was white enough to be included in the White Status. The White status was thought to be higher, not only by the white people but also by the Aborigine, as they had been taught. This was the stage one(Aborigine) aimed to reach.

• Bred out/Die out - These were the terms used by the White Australian Government for what they aimed to do to the Aborigines. The government wanted to 'Breed out' the Aborigine out of the Aborigine, in hope that one day the Aborigine race will 'Die out'.

• "Helping the Native" /Providing "Protection"- This phrase defined the duty of the 'Protectors of Aborigines' in the various state. By breeding out the Aborigine out of them, the Australian government believed to have been 'helping the native'.

• 'crossbreeds', 'quadroons' and 'octoroons'- This was the terminology used to describe children with mixed ethnicity (White and Aborigine). Crossbreeds were children with a mixed ethnicity. Quadroons were children who were a only a quarter Aborigine and three- fourths white. Octoroons were children who were only an eight Aborigine and the rest white.

Legislation

• Immigration Act of 1901
  • one of the first pieces of legislation passed under Australian Federation
  • restricted non-European immigration to Australia

• White Australia Policy
  • term used to describe eugenic legislation passed from 1901 to 1973

• Reversal of White Australia
  • Whitlam Labor government passed series of admendments in 1973
  • Migrants able to obtain citizenship
  • Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 outlawed the use of racial criteria for any offical purpose

• Aboriginal Policies in Western Australia
  • Aboriginal Act of 1905 - established 'Chief Protector' who was the legal guardian of every aboriginal or half-caste child under 16, removed children from parent's care, marriages between aboriginals and others had to be approved
  • Aborgines Protection Policy 1909 - aborigine children could be removed to a mission at any time
  • Native Administration Amendment Act 1941 - aborigines not allowed to travel from north to south across the 20th latitude line

Methods of "Breeding out"

The Law and Policies encouraging the "breeding out" of the Aborigine blood out of the Aborigines were mainly implemented between the years 1869-1969. However, there were illegal policies which were in practice even before 1869, and some those even remained after 1971.

• Forced Sexual intercourse by White men on Aborigine Women - Aborigine women were first forced to have sexual intercourse with a white man. When they got pregnant, they would produce half- caste children. Half Castes children were first separated from their families and were sent to either churches of institutions. If the child was a girl and was not selected initially to be sent to a white family, on growing up they were sent as slaves to white families. Here, often the man of the family would force the Half Caste lady slave to have sexual intercourse, in hope to get her pregnant. A child born from a Half Caste Aborigine/white lady by a white male, would produce a child only one quarters Aborigine, hence, even closer to white than the Half Caste. This was the aim of such activity. Next, the child born should have sexual intercourse with a white person, producing an even white specie, only one eight white. If this procedure is continued by every generation, the Aborigine blood will one completely "breed out" all Aborigines, hence leading to an Aborigine extinction. The White wanted to "breed out" the Aborigine out of each of these Half- Castes. This was one of the ways they opted for to diminish the identity of Aborigines.

The Following statements were made by Officers of the Australian Government, who claimed to be the "Protectors of Aborigines"

"Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half-castes will quickly be eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white." Dr. Cecil Cook, (Protector of Natives, Northern Territory)

“ Eliminate the full-blood and permit the white admixture to half-castes and eventually the race will become white.” AO Neville (Chief Protector of the Aborigines, Western Australia)

• Child removal (Aboriginal Protection Act 1869)

• • "forcible removal" - This is known to be the most common way of obtaining Half Caste children used by the Australian Government. Little Half-Caste children were forcefully taken away from their parents and sent to institutions.

• • "removal under threat or duress" - When the families were strong, they were threatened by the various means. Unable to help themselves, the Aborigine families would have to give up their children. Weapons were used if needed.

• • "official deception" - This was when the Australian Government officials would lie to families of the children and take the children away with the help of other means.

There is a real like example of such a case: Archie Roach is an Aborigine man currently in his early 50's. His mother was told that the men were taking him to a picnic. His aunt tried to scare the men away by the means of a gun, but it didn't work. He was taken to an institute in Melbourne where he was told that his family was dead.

• • "uninformed voluntary release" - At time the families of Aborigines would just leave their children lying on the sidewalks or something waiting for the institutions to find them and take them away. This happened rarely, but many "forcible removal" and

"official deception" cases were given the tag of such type of release.

• • "voluntary release" - This is believed to be the rarest kind of release. This is where the children were sent away by the parents themselves.

• Half castes institutions : The Australian Government set up many institutions to help out the Aborigines in the various ways they intended too. However, as time passes the purpose of these settlements changed and weren't very helpful then.

• • Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia - This Settlement is shown in the movie. This institution was originally meant to be a small farming area, which also provided health care and education for the Aborigines. But the land was found unsuitable for cultivation and instead Aborigines from all around starting coming in. Many Aborigines came in by their choice, while others were forced by the Government. Amongst the forced were mainly the "Stolen Generation".

• • Doomadgee Aboriginal Mission in Queensland - This settlement had to be replaced due to a cyclone in 1936, but this settlement was just like the others with strict rules. There were Dorms and Schools, but mainly the Aborigine boys weren't allowed to contact the Aborigine girls. They were kept far away. This is often seen as an attempt to prevent any "Pure" Aborigine births. This settlement was used by the government to keep the forcibly taken Aborigine children.

• • Ebenezer Mission in Victoria & Wellington Valley Mission in New South Wales - These settlements are described rather decently in comparison to the above two. These Missions were set up to civilize and convert Aborigines into Christianity. They had schools and dorms build up for the Aborigines that would teach them the European ways of life. However, like the others, this settlement also aimed on Europeanizing Aborigines, hence helping them loose their identity. But unlike the others, these settlements weren't much used by the Government to transfer half caste's children from the "Stolen Generation". These institutions may have helped Aborigines in need, but they were successful in converting some "full- blood" Aborigines into Christians, hence, Europeanizing them.

Life of the Girls

• Molly Craig

Molly was trained and employed as domestic help. She married an aboriginal stockman, Toby Kelly. She gave birth to two daughters, Doris and Annabelle. In 1940, Molly and her daughters were again transported to the Moore River Settlement. Molly escaped from Moore River about a year later with eighteen-month-old Annabelle, leaving Doris there. She followed that same route which she had taken with Daisy and Gracie. Three years later, Annabelle was taken from Molly and moved to Sister Kate's Children's Home, and Molly never saw her again. Doris and Molly were later reunited, and Doris went on to publish Molly's story in her book, Rabbit-proof Fence. Molly passed away in 2004, believed to be 87.

• Daisy Kadibil

Daisy reunited with her family and completed training to become a house maid. She married Kadibil and had four children. She also worked as a cook-housekeeper for the Kalundi Seventh Day Adventist Mission. She is now retired and living in Jigalong with her son and daughters.

• Gracie Fields

Gracie was captured during the girls' trek and sent back to Moore River. She completed her education there and then began work as a domestic helper. She married Henry Cross and had six children. She died in 1983.

Bibliography

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• "The laws: Western Australia" Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. http://www.hreoc.gov.au/education/bth/download/laws/bth_lawsWA_8r.pdf

• Stephens, Tony. "Daughter dies with her story still incomplete." The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 January 2004. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/14/1073877902433.html?from=storyrhs

• "The words Rudd will use to say 'sorry'", ABC, February 12, 2008

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• The West Australian online, 18 April 1930.

• McCarthy, Terry. "The Stolen Generation." TIME 2 Oct 2000. 2 Dec 2008 <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998067,00.html>. (Archie Roach)

• Dixon , Robert. "The Origin of the Term "Dismal Science" to Describe Economics." Thomas carlyle attacking the 'political economists' 2 Dec 2008

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