(from left) Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan and Everlyn Sampi.

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a powerful film based on the true story and experiences of three young Aboriginal girls, Molly, Gracie and Daisy, who were forcibly taken from their families in Jigalong, Western Australia in 1931.

The film puts a human face on the ‘Stolen Generation’, a phenomenon which characterized relations between the government and Aborigines in Australia for much of the 20th century.

The girls were taken away to be trained as domestic servants at the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth. This was consistent with official government assimilationist policy of the time decreeing that ‘half caste’ children should be taken from their kin and their land, in order to be ‘made white’.

Focusing on the escape of the three girls from Moore River in the 1930s, the film highlights the despair experienced by mothers whose children were taken, and the terror and confusion of those children, snatched from familiar surroundings and forced to adapt to European ways.

Led by fourteen year old Molly, the girls defy all odds to travel 1500 miles through unfamiliar territory to return to their land, their homes and families in North-Western Australia, with the authorities chasing them all the way.

Rabbit-Proof Fence is a true story, based on the book, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fencewritten by Doris Pilkington Garimara, Molly’s daughter.

The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation argues that the truth about past experiences must be spoken about and acknowledged by all Australians before reconciliation can occur. Rabbit-Proof Fence will show viewers truths that many have not seen or heard about before.

It was standard practice … Children were taken from their homes … Whole communities were shifted from their home to another part of the country. Aboriginal life has been regulated and supervised at almost every turn. There was no choice.
[Reconciliation and Its Key Issues: Improving Relationships, no.2.]

Further reading

Clippings about Rabbit-Proof Fence

Australian Journalist Questions ‘Stolen Generation’
11 March 2004 - Cultural Survival - In Australia’s Sunday Mail on February 29, journalist Andrew Bolt, in what he claims is an innocent attempt at finding the truth, denounces the existence of the ‘Stolen Generation,’ a group of 50,000-100,000 children taken from their Aboriginal parents for racist purposes by racist governments in the early years of the twentieth century, supposedly in the peoples ‘best interests.’ Claiming that not one person who was stolen can be identified anywhere on the continent, Bolt’s naïve and misguided attempt at objective reporting is causing an uproar, particularly because Australian papers are prepared to print his inflammatory remarks.
Rabbit-proof myths
29 February 2004 - The truth of Australia's past is hard enough to face, and untruths and exaggerations now will only divide us. Phillip Noyce claims his new film, Rabbit-Proof Fence, is a true story. The Hollywood director's publicity blurb repeats the boast: ``A true story.'' Even the first spoken words in the hyped film, which opens next week, are: ``This is a true story.'' Wrong. Crucial parts of this ``true story'' about a ``stolen generations'' child called Molly Craig are false or misleading. And shamefully so.
• Rabbit-Proof Fence writer Christine Olsen regading some of the 'fact' statements made by Andrew Bolt
Fence film inspiration dies
16 January 2004 - BBC - The woman who inspired the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence, trekking 1,000 miles as a girl to return to her Aboriginal mother, has died. Molly Kelly's nine-week journey in 1931 across the Australian outback with her sister became a symbol of the Aborigines' fight against settlers.
Molly Kelly
16 January 2004 - Telegraph (UK) - Molly Kelly, who died on Tuesday, probably aged 86, was forcibly removed as a child from her Aboriginal mother by the Australian authorities and sent, with her younger sister and a cousin, to a bleak government institution to be trained as a domestic servant; the story of her escape and her 1,200 mile-long trek home inspired Philip Noyce's acclaimed film Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), starring Kenneth Branagh.
Inspiration for 'Rabbit Proof Fence' passes away
15 January 2004 - A great outback saga came to an end in a remote desert community in Western Australia this week. Though many did not know her by name, Molly Kelly Craig achieved fame as the woman who inspired the film 'Rabbit Proof Fence'. One of the most powerful symbols of the stolen generations debate, Molly Kelly Craig died on Tuesday, aged 87.

A return to the land of their birth for 'Stolen Generation'
20 December 2003 - Fifty years after Doris Pilkington was forcibly separated from her family, she persuaded her mother, Molly Craig, to take her back to the place where she was born; under a mulga tree on a cattle station in Western Australia's remote Pilbara region. As mother and daughter drove through Balfour Downs Station, Doris caught sight of one tree and was struck by a peculiar sensation. "I said, 'That's the one'. We stopped, and she said, 'Yes, that's it'.
Vom Bonbonladen Hollywood ins Outback Australiens: Phillip Noyce: Long Walk Home (Australien 2002)
7 July, 2003 - Jump Cut (Germany) - Ein Problem politischer Filme ist die mangelnde Akzeptanz durch ein breites Publikum. Die Klage über die Dominanz des Mainstream gehört zum Repertoire derjenigen, die sich im Gegenstrom des unabhängigen Kinos wohl fühlen. Auch in Australien übernimmt Hollywood die Vorherrschaft: Im Jahre 2002 starteten 258 Filme, darunter 22 einheimische Produktionen.
Long walk home
4 May 2003 - Kulturweltspiegel (Germany) - Die geraubte Generation und wie aus einem der dunkelsten Kapitel der australischen Geschichte ein Filmepos wurde

Politics of 'hatred' earns spray from Noyce
9 December 2002 - After winning two big awards for Rabbit-Proof Fence within days, the director Phil Noyce accused the Federal Government yesterday of inflaming racial hatred in its handling of the stolen generation and asylum seekers.
Emotional tribute to indigenous talent
9 December 2002 - One of the most emotional speeches in the event's history - and one of the most abrupt - highlighted the recognition for Aboriginal stories and talent at the Australian Film Institute awards on the weekend.
Australian Film Now 'In the Black'
8 December 2002 - Australian Democrats' Arts and Indigenous Affairs Spokesperson, Senator Aden Ridgeway, has congratulated director Ivan Sen; actor David Gulpilil; director and producer Rachel Perkins; and all involved in the making of Rabbit Proof Fence, Beneath Clouds and The Tracker on their success in last night's AFI Awards.
Two political sleepers put Noyce a cut above the rest
6 December 2002 - Australian director Phillip Noyce was stunned yesterday after Rabbit-Proof Fence and another controversial film won him the first major prize of the Hollywood awards season, which culminates with the Oscars.
A secret history in the Outback
7 November 2002 - London Times - Director Phillip Noyce used his hollywood clout to make a hit film about Aborigines - his film has reopened a fierce debate in Australia about the treatment of Aborigines.
Everlyn steals the show
7 November 2002 - As Everlyn Sampi tried on dozens of outfits yesterday for her first awards night, the 14-year-old lamented the need to wear shoes. "I hate high heels, I prefer to go barefoot – that's what I'm used to," the indigenous actor giggled while her great-grandfather, Paul Sampi, rolled his eyes.
Controversial 'Rabbit-Proof' posters appear in US
28 November 2002 - Controversial posters and newspaper advertisements promoting the Australian film Rabbit-Proof Fence have started appearing in the United States.
London, no place for sitting on the fence
6 November 2002 - An Australian film that provoked strong opinions at home premieres in London to similar reactions
Phillip Noyce sails from dead calm to the centre of a political storm
3 November 2002 - The Scotsman - When Phillip Noyce received a phone call from screenwriter Christine Olsen at 3am one July morning in 1999, announcing she had the perfect script for him, it was the start of a journey that would force him to face up to the decisions he had made for the sake of his film career.
The stolen ones
25 October 2002 - (Guardian) A film dealing with the government's 'kidnapping' of part-Aboriginal children has caused fury in Australia. David Fickling reports from Sydney
Rabbit Proof Fence tops AFI list
18 October 2002 - Indigenous stories lead the charge at Australia's top film and television awards with a film based on the stolen generations topping the list of nominations. Rabbit Proof Fence, by acclaimed Australian director Phillip Noyce, has scooped the pool with ten nominations.
Film makes stars of Pilbara sisters
12 October 2002 - Sisters Molly Kelly, 84, and Daisy Kadibil, 78, are the central attractions of a tourist boom in their remote Pilbara community being fuelled by the success of a small-budget film telling their story from seven decades ago.
Studio times Noyce for date with Oscar
19 September 2002 - The powerful Hollywood studio Miramax is backing Australian director Phillip Noyce to bring it Oscar glory.
Stolen Generations film a hit at Scottish film festival
19 September 2002 - A film about Aboriginal children taken from their family in Western Australia has been the surprise hit of the Edinburgh Film Festival in Scotland.
Film Festival star united with Scots family
20 August 2002 - The Scotsman - When Everlyn Sampi was told that she was going to travel to a different hemisphere to appear at a film festival, the teenage Australian actress could have been forgiven for feeling a little apprehensive.
Advertising Oz
28 May 2002 - Peter Slipper, an Australian member of parliament ... claims the Miramax angle is 'sensationalising, misleading, and grossly distorting' - but his indignation seems a bit hypocritical.
Miramax refuses to drop controversial Aust film ad campaign
23 May 2002 - Hollywood studio giant Miramax has rejected calls to drop its controversial advertising campaign for the Australian film Rabbit- Proof Fence.
MP calls for change to Rabbit Proof Fence posters
20 May 2002 - Posters promoting Australian film Rabbit Proof Fence in the United States portrayed Australians as racist and should be changed, a federal MP said today.
Thought-Proof Fence
2 April 2002 - Problem: The film sucks. It uses a hackneyed, conventional narrative, a contrived approach to character, some very bad dialogue, and some acting that is worse.
Film forces Australia to face its cruel past
10 February 2002 - The Observer (UK) - Images from Rabbit-Proof Fence of children in detention are especially poignant as the United Nations, the Catholic Church, charities, international human rights groups and prominent writers and academics have been haranguing the government over its treatment of asylum-seekers, which includes locking up children in a desert camp.
Branagh waives fee for film on Aborigines/Peter Gabriel to compose soundtrack for new Kenneth Branagh drama
18 May 2001 - The Guardian (UK) - The British actor-director Kenneth Branagh waived his usual fee to play a white official who tried to destroy the Aboriginal race in Australia.
The long way home
15 February 2002 - All those behind the film ... recognise how hard it is for an Aboriginal film to find a mainstream cinema audience. The last success, some say, was Jedda in the 1950s.
Film places focus on saga that shamed Australia
3 February 2001 - The Independent (UK) - The plight of the Stolen Generations - Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families by the white authorities - is to receive international exposure thanks to a new film based on the remarkable true story of three girls who escaped and walked 1,200 miles home across the Australian Outback.

Dream time for our film-makers
28 January 2001- Some of Australia's finest film directors are scrambling to make films of Aboriginal stories. And now many predict the ailing local film industry could be in for an Aboriginal-led recovery.

Clippings about other Aboriginal-themed movies

Young actress shines
29 October 2004 - A nine-hour drive, nearly skittling an owl then arriving at 2am, is an unlikely way to get to a film awards ceremony. But Natasha Wanganeen's cross-country journey paid off when she was named young actor of the year by the Australian Film Institute yesterday.
How to see 'The Tracker' (which is not available in Europe)
Cinematic gems from Down Under
13 June 2004 - Jerusalem Post - While it's no secret that a lot of good films come out of Australia (My Brilliant Career, Gallipoli, and Rabbit-Proof Fence to mention a few), an Australian Film Festival is long overdue here. Now, lovers of Aussie film can rejoice, because an Australian film festival is starting this week at the Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv cinematheques, and will run until the end of the month.
A healing from the past, for the future
10 May 2004 - Tom Murray and Allan Collins have a remarkable story, and they'd prefer to let someone else tell it. It's about a blackfella called Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda from north-east Arnhem Land. In 1933 this Yolngu tribal leader came across a policeman who had broken Aboriginal law by trespassing on Yolngu land. He had also chained up Dhakiyarr's wife. In accordance with black law, Dhakiyarr speared the policeman, Constable Albert McColl, through the leg. McColl died.
Dhakiyarr vs the King Study Guide (Film Australia, PDF 240kb)
Indigenous Filmmaking in Australia
2 March 2004 - World Catholic Association for Communications - SIGNIS (Pacific) - In Australia there is a real expectation that Aboriginal people should be making films about Aboriginal people, that they should take the initiative in steering the rest of the Australian filmmaking community in how indigenous people are represented on the big and small screen.
Film Review: Black and White
January 19, 2004 - Hollywood Reporter - In a remote desert town in South Australia in 1958, a 9-year-old girl is found raped and murdered. On the flimsiest evidence, local police almost immediately arrest a young Aboriginal man and obtain a confession. Only the efforts of a stubborn, inexperienced Adelaide lawyer stand between the accused and the hangman.
• Other reviews: Irish Examiner • Daily Mirror • Financial Times • Daily Telegraph • Empire • Channel Four • London Movie Review • Shadows on the Wall • The Times • BBC • Movie Gazette • Independent • Evening Times (Scotland) • The Guardian • Ain't It Cool News

New films shine spotlight on the humanity of Aborigines
15 December, 2002 - Miami Herald - Most know them only from tourist ads, in which they appear almost as totems, evoking Outback exotica. A smaller number know some of their art, the colorful dot paintings of a strange, sunburned landscape. Yet there are few images that convey the humanity of Australia's struggling Aboriginal population, who - numbering just under 400,000 out of the country's 19.7 million people - can seem invisible even at home.
Man who lives in two worlds
11 December 2002 - You can imagine the controversy if Nicole Kidman or Russell Crowe was shown smoking marijuana on the national broadcaster. But this week one of Australia's best-known actors will be seen smoking a bong on an ABC documentary - and no one will turn a hair. Since 1971, when he became an overnight sensation in Walkabout, Nicholas Roeg's classic about a clash of cultures, David Gulpilil has been the world's favourite Aboriginal star.
“A cause worth fighting for”
19 September 2002 - Lisa Flanagan, who plays Clarence in Australian Rules, and Phillip Gwynne, scriptwriter and author of Deadly, Unna?, on which the movie is based, spoke this week with the World Socialist Web Site.
Aboriginal Stories Enrich AFI Entries
18 September, 2002 - An unprecedented four feature films competing in this year’s AFI Awards tell stories centred on Aborigines or Aboriginal themes, including one, Beneath Clouds, written and directed by Aboriginal filmmaker Ivan Sen, enriching and expanding the body of Australian film making.
Rolf De Heer’s The Tracker
4 August 2002 - The Tracker serves as a leader in the progress towards reconciling the past injustices, and the unification of Australia in a melting pot of tribes, communities and cultures.
More reviews of The Tracker
August, 2002 - Certain to collect a few Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards later this year – possibly even best film – The Tracker is a powerful new Australian drama set deep in South Australia, circa 1922.

Judgment in black and white
1 August 2002 - By Justice Michael Kirby. It is a good and brave country, with strong institutions, that learns from past errors and adopts reforms to avoid their repetition.

who are the 'stolen generations'?

Download print out and hand out the ENIAR Issues fact sheet (34kb PDF)

Great black hope
June 2002 - Ivan Sen has been hailed as the Great Black Hope of Australian cinema - the indigenous director most likely to follow in the footsteps of Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi and Baz Luhrmann.
Yolngu Boy
May 2002 - Yolngu Boy (Stephen Johnson, 2000), about the friendship between three adolescent Aboriginal men and the way each relates to the ancient cultural tradition to which they belong, arrives at a time when awareness of Australia’s colonial history, in particular, phenomena like the ‘Stolen Generation’, is considerable.
Emotions flare at Australian Rules
7 March 2002 - A debate about 'Australian Rules', a lively drama about a white youth and his Aboriginal best mate who play for a country football team, produced tears, a walk-out and angry accusations about white film-makers taking black stories at the Adelaide Festival.
Author defends film causing Aboriginal anguish
27 February 2002 - Phillip Gwynne, the author whose book inspired the film Australian Rules, which the Adelaide Festival considered withdrawing because it has upset members of the Aboriginal community, says he was naive when he wrote it and would do it differently now.

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Rabbit-Proof Central

(from left) Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan and Everlyn Sampi.

Clippings about Rabbit-Proof Fence

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