A Moving Movie

Rabbit Proof Fence tells the heart-wrenching story of Australia’s Aborigines.  The tale powerfully utilizes the ethos of two living victims when the movie begins with one of them, now a grandmother, narrating in her native Aboriginal tongue.  It ends with an image of the two women as they are today, reinforcing their credibility: they are living witness to the events of the movie. 

The girls are from the Stolen Generations- a period from 1930-1970 when half-caste Aboriginal children- children with white fathers, often men who were workers on the Rabbit Proof Fence- were taken from their Aboriginal mothers to be raised in a compound.  The goal was the eventual elimination of Aboriginal features from the population- by breeding already half-whites with whites, and so on, eventually there would be no sign that Aborigines ever existed. Aboriginal blood would be “bred out.”

The movie tells of three such half-caste girls who, under the guidance of the eldest, decide to escape the compound and travel 1,500 miles back home, using the rabbit proof fence, which divides Australia from coast to coast, as their guide.  The punishment if they are captured is severe.  Not to mention that most of the journey is through the harsh Australian outback. 

The rhetorical purpose is clear, and applicable to the many lands where natives were brutally treated by a “superior” population.  This movie, produced by Australians and based on a book by the main character’s daughter, is a message, informing the world of their country’s mistakes and asking that we learn from the past.  It is a tribute to the Aborigine.  

The persuasiveness of the girls’ story is inherent in its use of pathos- the heartstrings it pulls, the tears it instigates, the admiration for remarkable courage it insights. 

Rabbit Proof Fence is a powerful movie, one which will have a lasting influence on you.  I encourage you to watch and learn.