Video Description: The video above is about a women who was taken from her home and turned into an orphan. She performed child labor while in the orphanage and survived several traumatic events.
Reflection: How do you think Shelia's story explain the stolen generation?
Movie Overview: Rabbit Proof Fence is a film set in Western Australia about the removal of three girls from their families to a mission school at Moore River Native Settlement. It is based on the book of the true story, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, written by Doris Pilkington, the daughter of Molly, one of three girls who have a central role in the film. The film shows the capture of the girls, their life at the mission, and their escape and journey home along the rabbit proof fence. It portrays the trauma of the forced removal of aboriginal children, the ideology behind the missions and the attitudes of non-indigenous Australians towards aboriginal people. The film can also give an introduction to aboriginal languages, culture, lifestyle, belief-systems and tracking skills.
Please answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What are the girls doing at the beginning of the film? What does this tell us about their culture and way of life?
2. Who are the fathers of Molly, Gracie and Daisy? Where have they gone?
3. Why does Molly’s mother tell the children to hide when she sees the policemen?
4. What three things do Aboriginal people need to ask Mr. Neville’s permission to do?
5. What are some of the rules at Moore River that the children must follow?
6. Who is Moodoo?
7. What was Neville’s plan to ‘help’ Aboriginal children?
8. What did Neville believe would happen to ‘mixed blood’ and ‘full blood’ Aboriginal people once his plan was implemented?
9. What did he (Neville) mean by “in spite of himself, the native must be helped”?
10. Why do you think Modoo works as a tracker? What does he think about Molly, Gracie and Daisy? Is he really unable to catch them?
11. What does Molly say when she sees her mother?
12. What do Molly and Daisy do when they reach Jigalong? What happens to them into the future?
13. What happened to Gracie?
14. Neville’s official title is ‘Chief Protector’ yet the children at Moore River call him ‘Devil’. Who is Neville protecting? How would you describe him? Why?
15. Why do you think the Aborigines Act and related policies were accepted and promoted in Western Australia?