Rabbit-Proof Fence

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Film Guide Brendan Maher

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Rabbit Proof Fence Introduction received Dead Calm in 1989. The film Director Philip Noyce Set in 1930’s , Rabbit Proof featured and . Australia - USA/90 mins/2002/Colour Fence details the true story of a nine Noyce continued to work in the week trek made by three Aboriginal thriller genre with films such as Sliver girls from the adoptive state home (1993) and The Saint (1997). His two Cast where they were forcibly taken, films from ’s books Patriot Everlyn Sampi Molly Craig back to their family home. Philip Games (1992) and Clear and Present Tianna Sansbury Daisy Kadibill Noyce’s film tells us of a generation of Danger (1994) were generally well Laura Monaghan Gracie Fields Aboriginal children who, because of received. In advance of making Rabbit David Gulpilil Moodoo State Law in Australia, were removed Proof Fence, he said: Ningali Lawford Maud from their homes in order to be “After ten years in Hollywood, I’m still an Myarn Lawford Molly’s Grandmother re-educated and assimilated into outsider, a migrant guest worker telling Deborah Mailman Mavis the white community. Rabbit Proof other people’s stories. As a citizen of the Jason Clarke Constable Riggs Fence recounts the bravery of these world, without nationality, I’ve become the A.O. Neville individual children whilst also depicting ultimate Hollywood foot soldier, directing Natasha Wanganeen the social and political views which action/adventure, escapist stories designed Nina, Dormitory Boss caused their flight. The children’s story to mesmerize across all boundaries. I know Garry McDonald is but one for what has become known that black-themed films have never worked Mr. Neal at Moore River in Australia as ‘The Stolen Generation’ at the Australian Cinema box office. But Roy Billing Police Inspector it’s time to go home.” Daisy Craig Kadibill Herself Director Philip Noyce Noyce has most recently directed Molly Craig Herself New South Wales-born, Philip Noyce is Catch A Fire (2006) - a film set in probably best known for his American South Africa during the Apartheid Crew filmsClear and Present Danger, Patriot years, detailing government oppression Director/Producer Games and . against white South Africans who Producer Christine Olsen Despite these films being in the opposed the regime. Producer John Winter action/thriller genre, Noyce is also Original Music Peter Gabriel known for more studied pieces such Story Synopsis Director of Photography as The Quiet American and Rabbit Proof The year is 1931, Molly, Gracie and Fence. Making films since he was a Daisy are three Aboriginal girls of mixed Editors , John Scott teenager (he used to sell roles to his parentage. They live with their mother Casting Christine King friends to finance his films), Noyce Maud in the Bush near the remote depot Production Design Roger Ford was picked to study at the inaugural of Jingalong in . Art Director Laurie Faen Australian Film School in in The depot runs close to the State Set Decorator Rebecca Cohen 1973. Castor and Pollux a 50 - minute Barrier Fence, a wire construction Costume Designer Roger Ford documentary about two rebellious that runs the length of the continent, brothers, which he made at College, designed to keep rabbits and other won the award for the best Australian vermin from entering the area and short film in 1974. eating the crops and vegetation. Noyce first visited an Aboriginal As ‘half-castes’, the three girls theme in 1977 when he directed have been ear-marked by the Chief Backroads which starred activist Gary Protector of Aborigines A.O. Neville Foley. The film was a road movie and his Government department as following five companions across suitable candidates for assimilation into Australia. In 1978, Noyce directed and white Australian society. This is part of co-wrote an award laden and Government policy. commercial hit in Australia . Following a The girls are forcibly taken away number of years directing American TV from their mother and brought to shows such as The Hitchhiker, Noyce’s the Moore River camp. This camp is a introduction into the Hollywood starting point, where the girls will learn mainstream came by way of the well- English and be trained in basic tasks,

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making them suitable for employment Fence as a guide. But lack of funding and Australia was initially used as a as domestic workers when they are the difficult terrain frustrate the search penal colony to cope with the overflow older. The Camp is run strictly and and the children slip through. from British mainland and colonial wrongdoers are punished. The two girls cross the most hostile prisons, as well as naval stop-off for Molly decides to escape and takes part of the terrain – the desert, guided trade with China. Settlement began in her sisters with her. The children are in a mysterious way by a totemic bird. earnest in the 1840’s and vast tracts of discovered missing and an Aboriginal Maud is waiting for them at Jingalong land were cleared for farming, forcing tracker Moodoo is sent after them. and must ward off the local policeman the indigenous Aboriginal population The girls keep ahead of Moodoo and by threatening violence. Reunited after (who it’s estimated had lived on the live on what they can scavenge from the girl’s 1,500 mile journey, the family continent for 40,000 years previously) the locations they find themselves in. head into the bush, safe for a while, out back from the traditional tribal areas. One white woman gives them some of reach of Government agencies. There were many small-scale violent food and tells them of the Rabbit Proof The film moves forward to the clashes, but the Aborigines, with poorly Fence that stretches close to her present and we see the real Molly and developed weapons, were no match property. Molly realises that this fence, Daisy walking in the bush. for the settlers and their attendant if followed, can logically lead them back army firepower. to Jingalong. Historical Context This forced dispossession of They walk the length of the fence, Modern Australian History their land was one thing, given that dealing with drifters and farmers as and the Aborigines the Aboriginal culture was very they go. Gracie is captured again by the In 1788 there were an estimated 750,000 much linked to the land, but the police, after taking a different route Aborigines on the Australian continent. Aborigines also came in contact with to reach her father. The government By the 1890’s, there were only 100,000 European diseases, which they had no in attempt to track the children, with three and a half million European immunity from. These diseases such realising that they are using the State settlers now living there. as chickenpox, smallpox, influenza and

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This re-absorption programme did wipe out the native cultural heritage of many young Australians, but it has been found that such a re-socialisation process did not have the success it was hoped for. Leaving governmental control at the age of eighteen, the removed children in line with the rest of the native population showed high levels of substance abuse and crime (they were three times as likely to have a police record). Astonishingly, they were also less likely to have received a secondary education. The main advantage noted, was that they usually had a higher level of income, mainly measles actually caused the majority of wiped out either through assimilation due to the fact that many had moved to deaths amongst the native population. or a basic inability to survive and adapt urban areas, where work was The Aboriginal population eventually to modern life. more plentiful. moved to the more arid and unuseable The stated aims of the conference Many of the ‘Stolen Generations’ areas of the continent, where European in regard to mixed-race children were: report as adults, of difficulties in settlement was sparse, or else became - to culturally assimilate mixed- coming to terms with their background linked to fringe settlements near white descent Aborigines into contemporary and with their heritage. Much initial villages and cities, ekeing out a living from Australian society so as to aid in the governmental documentation was lost labouring or menial work. Some began to biological assimilation of the native race. or not even taken down, so some of the live on Christian mission stations, where “Generally by the fifth and invariably by individuals have no way of finding their they were educated and fed. the sixth generation, all native characteristics parents or forebears. of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. Historical Context The problem of our half-castes will quickly be The actual Rabbit-Proof The Stolen Generations eliminated by the complete disappearance of Fence By the 1930’s, when Rabbit Proof Fence the black race, and the swift submergence of The rabbit proof fence that the children is set, the native population had been their progeny in the white.” use as their guide to get home actually drastically weakened. The Government Dr Cecil Cook - Aboriginal Protector, exists in Western Australia. regarded the indigenous population as Northern Territory The fence was erected due to the a problem and thus looked at ways of This statement is made visible by introduction of European animals to solving that problem. One element of the lecture given by A.O. Neville in Australia. Rabbits were released into the problem was the existence of ‘half the film where he shows in slides the the Australian wild as early as 1756 castes’ – children of mixed indigenous visual features of an Aborigine who as a sport for hunters. Quickly large and European (white) parentage has descended through generations of groups bred and in eating the natural The 1937 Federal Government white relations. vegetation, could clear vast swathes of Conference on Native Welfare It is estimated that between the crops or foliage on the land. This led concluded in its final report that: 1900’s and 1969 (when the policy to soil erosion (the lack of vegetative “...the destiny of the natives of officially ended) 100,000 mixed race growth caused the roots to loosen the Aboriginal origin, but not of the full children were taken from their parents soil) and to the destruction of other blood, lies in their ultimate absorption and forcibly brought to white foster animal life due to the lack of a food by the people of the Commonwealth, parents, missions or other government source in the areas affected. and it therefore recommends that all institutions. Here their native culture This problem was so acute that efforts be directed to that end.” and language was disallowed and they between 1901 and 1907, the No 1 This is related to the fact that the were educated in English and in basic Rabbit Proof Fence, also known as State Government felt full blooded Aboriginal labouring jobs and thus assimilated into Barrier Fence was put up. It stretches people were destined to be eventually white culture. 1822 kilometres from Starvation

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Harbour in the south to Wallal near designating where an Aboriginal person Social Darwinism Port Hedland in the north. The aim is could or couldn’t live; making local One of the more unfortunate ways of to keep rabbits and other vermin out of regulations governing their conduct and adapting one theory to fit into a field Western Australia. controlling their assets. He also had the where it clearly is at odds is the notion The first fence failed even as it was power to decide who Aborigines could of Social Darwinism. Taking Charles being put up and two other fences or couldn’t marry and who could and Darwin’s axiom of the strongest and were built. No. 2 Fence is shorter and couldn’t work. fittest surviving from his theories, to the West, and the smaller east- In the film, Neville is shown as a which suggested that a process of west directional No. 3 fence. All three rigid authoritarian figure. He believes natural selection is at play as a species fences together are over 3,000 km long. that he is helping the Aboriginal evolves over the course of generations. The Fence required a large amount of population and the policy of assimilation (Origin of the Species – 1859) was the maintenance with horses, camels, bicycles will ultimately be of benefit to them. starting point. and cars all being used at one point or This leads us to think that he may Writers such as Herbert Spencer, another to bring fence inspectors and actually be well meaning despite holding Thomas Malthus, and Francis Galton workmen along the route. beliefs that have long been discredited. then moved this ‘survival of the fittest’ The use of the viral disease Allied to that, he is the symbol of theory from a biological sphere to ‘myxomatosis’ was allowed in the early the Government and educated white a human social study sphere. This 1950’s. The disease only affects rabbits opinion in the film. He believes in inevitably led to some social groups and is transmitted by mosquitoes. and presides over a policy of believing that they were superior to The disease killed millions of rabbits Social Darwinism. other ‘weaker’ groups. This must be and halted the rabbit explosion for a Neville is also shown as being related back to the Enlightenment time. Other controls and poisons were concerned with money – he asks the idea that human society was always used in the latter part of the century, police official to cover the costs of developing and progressing. For the however it is still estimated that rabbits the search and there is mention of Social Darwinist, therefore those cost farmers in Australia upwards of costs and budgets throughout the film. societies or societal groups who did $Au600m a year This seems to refer to historical fact not progress, seemed not to wish The use of such fences is common that the Government Centres where to progress or lagged behind these in Australia – the Fence was the children were kept were poorly developments were somehow inferior. erected in the late 1800’s and was used run and in bad repair. However it is This belief in the inferiority of to protect sheep flocks in recorded that Neville once disagreed some individuals and group led to (5,000 km long) and recently, there was with the viewpoint that his charges the viewpoints expressed by Neville a request that a fence be erected in the should have as much food as convicts, in ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ and the state Northern Territory to protect areas saying that this would make the policy in Australia at the time. Other from the cane toad. Aborigines idle. countries were also touched to Despite being seen in an office, for varying degrees as the social darwinist Characterisation most of the film, Neville is not afraid viewpoint came into vogue - most A.O. Neville in being involved in the day-to-day task notoriously Nazi Germany and its belief There has been some controversy of assessing the children. Visiting the that the Aryan race was superior to all about the depiction of the real life Moore River Centre, he checks their others. The theory perhaps reached A.O. Neville (played by Kenneth skin colour to see which of the children it’s zenith with the writings of Francis Branagh) in the film. can be further integrated. However, he Galton, whose adaptation of Darwin’s As shown in the film, he was the seems to view the children as livestock work (1865) came to be known as Chief Protector of Aborigines and of some sort. This scene suggests that Eugenics. This theory proposed the was assigned that role in 1915. This his viewpoint is somewhat arbitrary but eventual elimination of inferior human role gave him the powers to protect one not to be disagreed with. beings by reducing certain groups the native population from acts of One of the unusual decisions in the (those on welfare, those in asylums oppression and encroachment on their film is to shoot Neville’s office scenes at etc.) capacity to have offspring. territory. It also has been suggested a slight angle. This type of angle is called a Some societies (in the 20th that the role became one of social ‘dutch angle’ where the camera is placed Century) eventually activated this control and that the Protector’s Office in such a way as to unbalance the normal theory by the genocide or forced assumed many other duties including horizontal aspect of the frame. The angle sterilisation of targetted groups.

freshfilmfestival  Rabbit-Proof Fence creates a sense of unease in the viewer Quiet American comes with a music generation of young Australian children and suggests a world that is out of kilter. budget of half a million dollars. On who were taken from their parents in Above all Neville is a paternalistic a whim, I also tell him the story of the mid-part of the last century. character, who is happy to offer advice Rabbit-Proof Fence though I can’t help The children’s journey is an epic and comment on the Aboriginal issue. but honestly report that we can only tale, suggesting a strength of character Before the Royal Commission in 1934, afford recording costs – there is no and understanding of the landscape that he defended his policies saying that money for a composer’s fee. From belies their young age. “they (the Aborigines) have to be that night to this I’ve never seen Peter The film deals delicately with protected against themselves whether Gabriel in person again. But for the forced removal of this generation of they like it or not. They cannot remain next ten months we enjoyed one of the children. It maintains a middle-ground as they are. The sore spot requires the closest collaborations I’ve ever had with between the reality of the cruelties application of the surgeon’s knife for a film composer. When he accepted that were inflicted on the young people the good of the patient, and probably the job Peter said that he wanted to and their families and not allowing against the patients will.” make music that ‘came out of the earth the natural emotion of the story to itself.’ Month after month my sound descend into hysteria. Music Peter Gabriel team would send the real sounds of the The film did bring to the Philip Noyce’s diary recounts British Australian bush to Peter’s studios in attention of the current generation of rock singer Peter Gabriel’s involvement Bath, England. Via mp3 file, Peter emails Australians, the notion of the ‘Stolen on the Rabbit Proof Fence soundtrack: back the results of the samples that he Generations’ a group of mixed race “December 2000. Having completed and his team have orchestrated into a native people who had for a number of seven weeks of shooting in the barren musical score. My assistant downloads years been clamoring for recognition Flinders Ranges of , the files, presses countless CDs and we of the essential wrong that was Cinematographer Chris Doyle and I fly experiment mixing the music with the perpetrated against them. directly to Ho Chi Minh City to begin film’s soundtrack in a continuous five pre-production on The Quiet American. month sound mix. It’s as if our mixing Further Information From I continue to London in console at Fox Studios in Sydney is ‘Bringing them Home’ - report on the search of a Vietnamese actress to fill linked via the internet to Real World Stolen Generations: www.austlii.edu. the role of ’s mistress Studios in Bath.” au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/ in the Graham Greene story. At the hreoc/stolen/ Metropolitan Hotel I meet up with Final Note ‘Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence’ Peter Gabriel and offer him the choice Rabbit Proof Fence is an emotional film, by Doris Pilkington - University of of two film projects as composer. The detailing in one story the fate of a Queensland Press (1996).

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