Fence film inspiration dies
 16 January 2004 - 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.
She had been taken from her mother to be trained as a servant, as part of the then Australian Aborigine policy.
Ms Kelly, who was 87, died in her sleep at home in Jigalong, Western Australia.
When Molly, who was 14, and sister Daisy, 11, along with a cousin, were taken, it was part of what became known as Australia's "stolen generations", children who were separated from their families to be placed into mainstream society.
The policy ran between 1905 and 1971.
But the Kelly children immediately fled from the institution they were placed in, with Molly deciding to follow a rabbit-proof fence believing it would lead them back to Jigalong.
Their ordeal across the harsh terrain, with little food or water, eventually took them home.
Ms Kelly's daughter Doris Pilkington Garimara, who herself was taken away by the authorities, heard her mother's story when they eventually reunited more than 20 years later, and wrote down her experiences in a book.
In 2002, Australian director Phillip Noyce took on the job of bringing the story to the big screen.
Kenneth Branagh starred in the movie, which won widespread critical praise.
"She (Molly) was a person that was utterly wilful, who decided she would not be dictated to, took on the whole state apparatus and managed to win," said Christine Olsen, the screenwriter of the film.
"I remember her as a very impressive woman. When you looked at her you knew she had a belief in herself, and that first and foremost she would not bend to anyone."
Noyce said he is planning to return to Jigalong to pay his respects, although no funeral arrangements have been released.
Source: BBC
Aboriginal woman's epic journey ends
Jamie Tarabay in Sydney
 16 January 2004 - Molly Kelly, whose epic trek home through the Australian wilderness more than 60 years ago inspired a successful film and became a symbol of the mistreatment of Aborigines by Australia’s European settlers, has died. She was thought to be 87.
As a child in the 1930s, Ms Kelly was taken from her mother and sent to train as a domestic servant as part of the Australian government’s policy of assimilating Aborigines into mainstream culture.
But at the age of 13, she escaped with her cousin and younger sister and began an epic trek of more than 1,000 miles back to her home town.
Her story came to light in a book written by her daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara, and became the inspiration behind the 2002 film Rabbit-Proof Fence, by the Australian director Phillip Noyce, which starred Kenneth Branagh and Everlyn Sampi as Molly.
On Tuesday, more than six decades after her astonishing journey, Ms Kelly died while taking a nap at her home in Jigalong, Western Australia.
The film of the nine-week trek Ms Kelly made in 1931 with her half-sister, Daisy Burungu, and a cousin, Gracie Fields, reignited passionate debate in Australia about the "stolen generations" of Aboriginal children separated, sometimes forcibly, from their parents.
"She was so very strong, so determined, a no-nonsense kind of person. Everybody in the community respected her for that," said Ms Garimara, who wrote the bestselling book, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, which inspired the film.
"Mum’s legacy is the calming influence and quiet dignity of the desert women, and the stolen generations story. She looked you straight in the eye," she said.
In 1931, Ms Kelly, whose father was an English fence inspector, was taken from her mother along with her sister and cousin and sent to a government institution to be trained as servants.
Thousands of such forced separations began in 1905 and continued until 1971. While many families were reunited, some will never know their real relatives.
The Australian government has refused to apologise formally for the policy, fearing lawsuits.
The day after the three girls were removed to the institution, they fled.
Ms Kelly knew that her home in Jigalong, a remote settlement on the edge of the Gibson Desert, was on a rabbit-proof fence - intended to stop the spread of the imported animals - that ran right across Western Australia.
She reasoned correctly that if they headed towards the fence and followed it north, they could not miss their home.
In the course of their walk, the three girls crossed a flooded river, sand dunes, a desert and a salt lake, slept in dugout rabbit burrows and ate sweet potato and wild banana.
Ms Kelly had to carry the other girls at times. Nine weeks after they set out, they finally made it home.
"She was a person that was utterly willful, who decided she would not be dictated to, took on the whole state apparatus and managed to win," said Christine Olsen, the film’s screenwriter.
"I remember her as a very impressive woman. When you looked at her you knew she had a belief in herself, and that first and foremost she would not bend to anyone."
Ms Garimara and Mr Noyce, the film’s director, are planning a return to Jigalong, where Ms Kelly died, to pay their final respects.
Source:Scotsman
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