The Jigalong Aboriginal community was established in 1907 and known for its red earth and ancient landscapes. It’s located in remote Western Australia with just 333 people currently living there. This was the home of Molly Craig, Daisy Kadibill and Gracie Cross. They are some of the most recognized faces of the Stolen Generations. These girls became known for their incredible journey escaping the Moore River settlement in 1931. Their story has been outlined in both a book and a film named Rabbit Proof Fence.

Rabbits were first introduced to Australia in 1788. The rabbits were multiplying at high rates and damaging the crops and the land. They caused damage to the landscape plants and soil erosion due to over grazing. This made the settlers try to find a way to still produce the crops but find a way to protect them from getting destroyed by the animals. That was the reasoning behind constructing the fence in Australia and it was referred to as the rabbit proof fence. It was constructed between 1901 – 1907 and the barbed wire helped keep the wild rabbits and other animals out of the farm land on the western side of the continent. This is the largest fence in the world and stretches 1,139 miles.

“From the first years of British colonization, Aboriginal Australians were viewed as an impediment to the successful settlement of the country and after 1901, as a stain on Australia’s projected image as a white nation” (Cheater 2010:250). In 1905, the Western Australian Aborigines Act passed, which allowed for an Aboriginal Protector to be assigned and to become the guardian of all mixed-race children under the age of 16. This gave the government control to remove mixed-race children from their homes without consent and to take the children to be raised at a reserve or mission. They thought by removing the child away from their parents it would break their connection to their Aboriginal culture and allow them to transition into the government assimilation policies (Cheaters 2010:250). Aboriginal families were fearful of having their children removed and sent to the Moore River Settlement, where they knew they would suffer from inadequate food, inadequate health care and cruel treatment from the settlement authorities (Taylor 2018:114).

“Neville had been appointed to the role of Chief Protector of Aborigines in 1915 without any prior experience of issues affecting Indigenous communities” (Taylor 2018:100). Social and political opinions definitely molded how Neville chose how to treat this group. He wanted to segregate Aborigines from their communities, without providing them financial support (Taylor 2018:104). Neville had the power approve marriages being requested between an Aboriginal woman and non-Aboriginal man (Taylor 2018:115). “Missionaries emphasized the marriage of Indigenous mission residents as a way of reinforcing gendered European and Christian codes of behavior, with the hope that married couples would then remain with the mission and become useful role models for local Aboriginal people yet to be converted” (Taylor 2018:115). A.O. was leading the effort to make the Aboriginal cultures disappear. He had the belief that if the Aboriginal people became lighter in skin color, they would easily assimilate with white people’s cultural characteristic (Frieze 2014:84).

His end goal was to “whiten” Aboriginal Australian’s and fully assimilate them into White society. “Neville predicted that the settlements would be phased out after two or three generations as the older people died off and the younger Aboriginal people joined the wider community” (Taylor 2018:104). “Some families suffered through three or four generations of child removal by the various Australian states” (Cheater 2010:250). Also, once out of their parent’s care, they knew they didn’t have any real protection, especially from various forms of abuse.

Boards did not protect girls from unwanted attention from men. If there was a pregnancy, they turned it back on the girls, called them liars and said they provoked this attention. They could see no reason why a white man would be attracted to any Aboriginal girls (Cheater 2010:256). All of this was known among the Aboriginal community so families did their best to hide their children as they knew once they were targeted there was no way for them to avoid their child being taken.

The girls were captured in August 1931, and Molly decided right way that they would not be staying there. She did not want to be in this strange place among people they didn’t know so she decided that they would leave early in the morning and get a head start before they started searching for them. Her plan was to find the rabbit proof fence and that would lead them to Jigalong. According to Pilkington, Molly who was 14 at the time, had no fear because the wilderness had always provided her shelter and food, thanks to the skills and techniques taught to her (Pilkington 2002:82). They traveled through various conditions of both wet and dry land. They managed to widen and deepen a deserted burrow to provide themselves with a warm and dry shelter for an evening (Pilkington 2002:86). They were able to build fires, in holes in the ground to keep the flames less noticeable and to cook the animals that they had caught for their food. The girls walked approximately 18 miles each day, but decided they had to cover more ground in the daylight hours (Pilkington 2002:92). Along their travels they encountered many good Samaritans who provided them food and supplies that sustained them during their trip. The girls were not easily followed due to rain and other conditions covering their tracks.

A month into their journey the scratches and sores on their legs became infected and made walking difficult. Daisy and Gracie had taken turns being carried to rest their legs. Molly never got a break being the oldest and being too big for either of them to manage. At this point they finally reached the rabbit proof fence, unfortunately that only meant they were about half way home and still had about 500 miles until they would reach Jigalong. For the girls, the fence provided them with a symbol of love, home and security (Pilkington 2002:109) Molly said the fence, “would stand out as a beacon that would lead them out of the rugged wilderness, across a strange country to their homeland” (Pilkington 2002:110). Unfortunately, Gracie was so tired and her bare feet were so sore from walking so many miles. She refused to go any further as they came upon a railway station. Molly and Daisy tried to talk her into staying with them but their pleading fell on deaf ears, so they continued to travel on with just the two of them. A woman told Gracie, that she could take her to the town of Wiluna, where she was told her mother was located. When they arrived, her mother wasn’t located there but she grew accustomed to normal comforts of home. That was the case until she was spotted by a tracker. The last week Molly and Daisy reached Molly’s aunt’s house, there they were fed and finally able to rest. The next few days her cousin Joey and his boss Ron Clarkson accompanied them on the rest of the way. The girls rode a camel on this leg of the trip. Their journey home lasted almost nine weeks.

The Bringing them Home Report was released in 1997, which looked into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. “The report is the result of an inquiry by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission concerning the official policy of forced removal of Indigenous children from their families” (Schaffer 2002:7) The report finally provided history and first-hand accounts of the families and children impacted. It also was able to touch upon the long-term effects that these policies had on the children and their families. “Peter Read, a historian of the Stolen Generation, estimates that between 50,000 – 100,000 Indigenous children that were put into an orphanage or foster care between 1910-1970” (Schaffer 2002:7). The "Bringing Them Home report gave legitimacy and official recognition to the stories of dispossession, loss of family, kinship ties, language and country, and the ongoing effects of that that loss" (Schaffer 2002:6). The violence, physical and sexual abuse, being taken miles from their homes, losing the right to use their native language, and having their land and culture ripped away from them caused life-long trauma for so many. The benefit of this report being finalized is that it finally gave them a platform to fight for Indigenous rights. “Although many girls had scars for the years spent in uncaring environments, many of them became community leaders to rebuild the family ties that Australian assimilation policies were designed to break” (Cheater 2014:265).

Molly married Toby Kelly and had two daughters Doris and Annabelle. On November 18, 1940, while leaving the hospital following a procedure, they took both Molly and her daughters to the Moore River Settlement again (Pilkington 2002:131). Molly received a letter informing her of multiple family members passing away and she wasn’t allowed to return and participate in the rituals for them. The loss was overwhelming and she wasn’t able to cope, so on January 1, 1941 Molly made her second escape out of the Moore River Settlement (Pilkington 2002: 131). This time she traveled with her eighteen-month old daughter Annabelle and made the choice to leave Doris at the settlement. Pilkington confirmed that, “She and her baby daughter arrived safely in Jigalong months later, following the same route she had taken nine years earlier” (Pilkington 2002:132). Three years later Annabelle was taken from her mother for the second time and she never saw her again. Her husband Tom died in October 1973. Molly stayed in Jigalong until she died in January 2004. Her daughter Doris, authored the book Rabbit Proof Fence which was later made into film.

Gracie Cross was captured while the girls were on their journey trying to escape the settlement. She was forced to return to the Moore River settlement, completed the minimal education provided and was sent to work as a domestic worker (Pilkington 2002:132). Gracie married Harry Cross and had six children: Lucina, Therese, Margaret, Marcia, Celine, and Clarence. She passed away in July 1983 and never returned to Jigalong (Pilkington 2002:132).

Daisy trained as a house maid and worked various jobs. Pilkington notes that “she married Kadibil, a station hand and together they had four children: Noreena, Elizabeth, Jenny, and Margaret” (Pilkington 2002:133). She currently lives in Jigalong with some of her children.