Rabbit Proof Fence

Exploitation in Rabbit Proof Fence

            Rabbit-Proof Fence, Phillip Noyce’s 2002 film (based on the book by Doris Garimara), tells the story of three mixed-race Aboriginal girls: Molly (the oldest and the main character), Daisy, and Gracie. The film takes place in 1930 Australia when Aboriginal children were kidnapped and forced to attend a re-education camp for “half-castes” by the official Protector of Western Australian Aborigines. Neville, the film’s protagonist, seeks to teach the half-caste children in the ways of the whites and gives them training so the half-castes can serve as laborers and servants to white families. He eventually hopes to breed out the Aboriginal blood in the half-caste lineage and seeks for them to be absorbed into white society. The majority of the film focuses on the girls’ daring attempt to find a way back home after escaping the re-education camp; however, it gives key insight to how people of color are seen by white society, even if the people of color were the natives to the land.

Diagram of where the rabbit fences were placed

            One of the most shocking parts of the film is how Mr. Neville is considered the, “the legal guardian of every Aborigine in the State of Western Australia.” The Australian government systematically took away the right of parents to claim guardianship over their own children. Consequentially, the government is making the claim that the Aborigine people do not deserve or are not able to raise their own young. Instead, white society and government sees themselves as their savior. Thus, it is evident that the white culture in Australia did not see the Aborigine people as suitable to provide to society. Instead of respecting their way of life or putting the onus of adaptation on the Aborigines themselves, the Australian government forced children to attend re-education camps. These camps, aside from forcibly removing children from their families and homes, trained the half-cast and Aborigine children to serve as indentured servants to white families. All they were given to look forward to were low paying jobs in the domestic and cheap labor markets and exploitation. As Marx states in Capitalist and Pre-Capitalist Societies (referenced and cited in another analysis post), the survival of the dominant class is dependent upon the continued exploitation of the lower class. Thus, of course the dominant class would want to indoctrinate a whole race of people to commoditize themselves as indentured servants with little to no other alternative in employment and life chances.

Rabbit Proof Fence. Dir. Phillip Noyce. Perf. Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Kenneth Branagh. Miramax Home Entertainment., 2003. Netflix Stream.