From The Age:
Molly Kelly, the Aboriginal heroine of the film Rabbit- Proof Fence, has died with one regret: she was never reunited with the daughter taken from her 60 years ago.
Mrs Kelly died in her sleep at Jigalong, Western Australia, after going for a nap on Tuesday. She was believed to be 87.
The then Molly Craig, probably 14, was taken with two younger girls from their families in the East Pilbara in 1931 and transported to Moore River, north of Perth. The three escaped the next day and walked to Jigalong.
Their journey of 1600 kilometres took nine weeks. It ranks as one of the most remarkable feats of endurance, cleverness and courage in Australian history…
The movie based on Molly Kelly’s great escape, Rabbit-Proof Fence, is one of my all-time favorite adventure movies. Go rent it, if you haven’t already seen it..
Rabbit-Proof Fence was a great movie!
After watching the movie, I was reminded of Homer’s “The Odyssey.” Do you think there were many women’s/girls’ adventures in the time of Homer that didn’t get written down?…because they weren’t considered true adventures or because, although women seem to be interested men’s and women’s stories, most men seem more interested in stories of masculine triumph (i.e., war).
ur a mad bitch for walking that far…..ur my fkn idol……….lollollollololol…
Wonderful film depicting the love, dedication and desire that a young girl had. Wonderfully made with a great cast. I would recommend this movie to everyone!
I just saw Doris Pilkinton speak on campus (I had invited you Amp via e-mail, but you apparently didn’t see it. Then I got too busy to follow up) Fascinating woman. It’s amazing how common it is to have western colonial governments attempting to do away with indigenous cultures, a most unfortunate state of the world.
You know – I love the fact that Australia produces film makers like Phil Noyce who’ll drop Hollywood contracts to come home and make a film like ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ – it makes me proud.
But, at the same time, here in W.A., there are still people around, powerful people, who regard the depiction of Mr Neville, the ‘protector’ of Aborigines, as being biased because he was supposedly a good bloke trying to do his best and the policy of taking children away was/is really the only thing that could be done. That makes me ashamed.
Although the film is about the success of three small girls – it should be born in mind that in the 1920’s and 1930’s fully one quarter of all Aboriginal children in the South West were taken away from their parents by the state. The deciding factor was the colour of your skin. The practice continued up until 1970 in some parts of Australia .
In 1981, I rememeber being shocked and ashamed when a young competent woman living at Papunya in the Northern Territory described to me how, as a 10 year old in 1970, she had, not once, but twice walked back home the 300kms from Alice Springs when she was taken away because it was thought that she was a ‘half-caste’ even though she was living with both her parents at the time.
After her second walk back – the authorities gave up. Molly Garimara was not the only person to try to escape and her experience was not something that only happened back in the twenties and thirties.
It’s not hard to understand the motivations for the riots in Redfern (Sydney) recently – and we still have politicians whose solution is to bring the bulldozers in.
As I said earlier, it’s really what happens with the mindset of a colonial government. I heard about the same type of thing happening to Navajos as recently as the 1960’s. The irony, of course, is that the US government was trying to eliminate the Navajo language 20 years after using the very same language to win World War II. See Windtalkers for a rather trite illustration of this, although it remains the only cinematic illustration of how Navajos were used in the second world war. And of course, according to the warped worldview of those who implement such plans, it’s always in the best interest of the people they attempt to assimilate, thinking the only way for these people to be accepted into the dominate culture is through forced assimilation.
i would never been able to walk that far. i would get so tired! you are so cool man. if i was your mother i would be so proud of you and how you carried your sister that was so sweet! im really sorry about your cousin!
but i loved the movie it was so sad and im so sorry that you had to go through that
This movie/book is a true classic.
It’s amazing how common it is to have western colonial governments attempting to do away with indigenous cultures, a most unfortunate state of the world.
Ask the Tibetians if they think this is limited to Western governments. Or the Aimu in Japan. Or the southern Sudanese. Take a good look at world history. Conquerors often attempt to eliminate indigenous cultures; it’s got nothing to do with “Western” culture.
Conquerors often attempt to eliminate indigenous cultures; it’s got nothing to do with “Western” culture.
It is interesting and instructive to compare the ethnographic replacement histories of various parts of the world. Oddly, places most recently colonized/exploited by Western powers are not the only places where dreadful things have happened, large crimes committed. No ethnic or religious group (well, maybe the Amish or somebody) has much high ground on which to stand.
It’s also interesting to compare the relative outcomes in terms of genocide rates of various geographic regions.