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Personal Reflection

First of all, right after I watched this film, I was stunned; I couldn't believe that this really happened in Australia. I have been to Australia and I became friends with some Australians. They seem admiring Aborigines and inheriting their cultures such as art, music, and boomerang.

What made me shocked was the separation of Aboriginal children from Aborigines was LEGAL. They did it for the sake of ‘protection.’ Therefore, Neville, the government "chief protector of Aborigines,” never felt sorry for them rather, he felt confident what he was doing. Even though the children who are in the settlement were unhappy, nobody cared about their feelings. They try to make them adapt to the white society, which reminds me of The Education of Little Tree. Little Tree was sent to an elementary school, where he only was allowed to speak only English. The three girls in this film experienced the same thing.

At the end of the film, the old woman, who was the model of one of the main characters (Daisy), told about her experience. Sadly, she was ‘adapted’ to white society and forgot her mother tongue as well as her culture. This is the scary point about education. It can change children’s identity. Children are flexible, so they can accept anything even the things they don’t want to accept. Also, there is adult’s authority in this society, so children always forced to obey the adults. Thus, if the adults teach the children something wrong, the children would accept it as it is; they rarely are critical about what the adults tell them.

Overall, this is a one of the sadder movies I have watched, but from this film, I learned how much education influences children’s lives. It can be sad, but from other view, if the educator could tell the importance of our lives to children, they also will accept it and can make it a better place by education.

Jul 20th, 2012 2:59am

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INTERVIEWS

Friend 1, was touched by the part when the grandmother hit herself with a stone on the skull as a way of mourning her grandchildren. She said, it really shows how much pain she was going through in her life.

Friend 2, apparently she likes kids so much. So she said she hated the moment when little Daisy was screamed at, and told to speak English only not her native language. She claimed that, at some point, she cried when watching the video. As a student who took this course, I would say the girls were to be civilized by being taught a new culture (eliminating their culture).

Jul 20th, 2012 1:03am

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Interview

I interviewed a woman who is in her 50's.

She mentioned that "the portrayal of the story by the Aboriginal actresses is absolutely amazing, and the fact that it is part of their own history makes it even more so. It is a hard film to watch because the r...acism and bigotry depicted in it are so horrifying to those of us who see it for what it is. The fact that not all of them make it to freedom makes it even harder to bear, but also shows the very real dangers the girls and their society were up against. Their dignity and perseverance despite overwhelming odds is inspiring. The film is incredibly powerful, and has a tale to tell not only about Australia but about all cultures where one part of society thinks they are better than another."

Jul 19th, 2012 11:59pm

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This video clip is a supplement to "Cinematic Techniques."

Jul 19th, 2012 11:48pm

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Connections to Course Material

        In the first section of this course, ‘Schools,' we learned that schools are not merely places where the traditional subjects are taught, but institutions, designed to produce or illicit specific values in members of society. In the chapter, “Schooling and Society,” author Martin Carnoy writes, “Nations have come to believe that to be accepted as civilized, they must be educated; and to be educated, they must be schooled,” (Carnoy, 1974). This statement represents the underlying ideology behind the Australian government as portrayed in the film ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’. In his chapter, Carnoy argues that the Western system of education purports its legitimacy by benefiting not just the individual but also the society, by providing more than an academic education but a moral one as well.  However this legitimacy is not founded according to Carnoy, as this educational system was “organized to develop and maintain, in the imperial countries, an inherently inequitable and unjust organization of production and political power” (Carnoy, 1974). In ‘Rabbit Proof Fence,’ a clear attempt is made to utilize education as a means to better aboriginal children, not merely as students but also as people, for the ultimate purpose of being seen as fit to enter white society.

        In the second half of the course, ‘Communities,’ it was acknowledged that a delicate balance must be struck between education and maintaining the cultural integrity and tradition of a community. In “Danger! School,” an Indian verison of a critique of schooling and its history, an important point is made about learning. The comic states, “learning does not take place only in schools” (Gupta, 1996). The comic discusses education in forest dwelling communities and indigenous schooling in India, and argues such communities and their educational styles provide “a permanent framework for learning” (Gupta, 1996). In communities such as that of the Peruvian highlands, there is a conscious effort to combine two forms of education, both western or modern education, and traditional education in an attempt to preserve a culture and way of life. In the film, the aboriginal way of life of the girls is disregarded at Moore River, as they are forced to speak English and acknowledge Christianity and its values.

        In the film, the purpose of education is obvious. The removal of the children from their families and communities is all under the paternalistic guise that the Australian government ‘knows best.’  In the companion book to the film ‘Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh,’ author Helena Norberg-Hodge writes, “The Western educational system is making us all poorer by teaching people around th e world to use the same resources, ignoring those of their own environment” (Norberg-Hodge, 2000). In removing these half-caste children, with the ultimate motive to breed out the aboriginal blood, there is the clear message that the aboriginal education, and subsequent way of life is inferior.

References

        Carnoy, M. (1974). Schooling and Society. Stanford University and Center for Economic Studies. Education as Cultural Imperialism (pp.1-30).  New York: David McKay Company, Inc.

        Gupta, Arvind. (1996). Danger! School. Geneva, Switzerland: The Other Indian Press.

        Norberg-Hodge, H. (2000). Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh. Revised Ed. Sydney: Rider Books. 

Jul 19th, 2012 11:38pm

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Review

3 girls escape from the being trained as servants after being plucked from their home country. If you want to know more please see the blogs below and the full movie.

Director: Phillip Noycee

Jul 19th, 2012 10:59pm

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Personal Reflection

        When the 3 girls are escaping, the movie shows the the different characterastics on the different person and these get the movie more thinking full. First , on the way of escaping, they meet several men. All of them helped the 3 girls no matter they are white or black. So this reflects the some good aspect of human beings. On the other hand, the hunter obviously belongs to the 3 girls side, but he is on the slave holder's side. This shows a very common situation in that time. People can betray themself because of money.

        The three girls themselves also have different characteristics. The brave girls get back to home finally however the girl who hesitated failed.

Jul 19th, 2012 10:52pm

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Interview

         As part of our group project I invited one of my friends to watch this film and asked for some of her reflections. She is in the same grade but not taking the same course with me. Some of her reflections actually overlap with our course materials.

        She mentioned the part when the three children had lunch at the aboriginal school for the first time they sat down before other children, but when they noticed other children had not sit yet they stood up again. Obviously no one had told the rules to them, but they tend to learn from others behaviors. From this point she said schools are institutions that teach students to follow the rules. Students learn to be submissive and obedient in schools. Another point she mentioned is that in this film the school is depicted as a place for standardization. Despite all the diversities of the students, the school tried to apply a single standard to all of them. For example, the students might from different aboriginal groups who spoke different languages but they could only speak English in the school. Furthermore all the students were asked to wore the same clothes and learn the same skills (one of which was sewing, a typical skill for domestic servants) of which some of them might not good at. As a result, students lost cultural diversities from such schools. Ironically this was just the purpose of this kind of schools at that time.

Jul 19th, 2012 10:26pm

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Screening & Short Interviews

(I summarize the interview part into text.)

  Screen became dark down, the lights suddenly lit up, at this moment, the meaning of the film is never so sharply in front: the beam of light may not be able to guide the direction of development of human society, but it can illuminate a dark chapter in the history of human civilization. Nineteen thirties White Australia government passed legislation concerning indigenous people, that is to take the progeny away from parents, and through segregated education.

  The government was claiming that this is for their growth and also provide them more opportunities, so that they can be better integrated into WHITE society. Beautiful lies was ugly enough to racial discrimination and isolation. The children's place of residence is more like a Nazi concentration camp, but its destruction is not the life, but human dignity and the national emotion and identity. They forbid the children speak dialect, only can speak English. In their eyes, the mixed-race children just racial transformation experiments. From this" Experimental School" qualified after graduating, can be effective for white service. As we learned in the class, education maintains the political system. And as the film mentioned “are we allowed the creation of a unwanted third race.”

  Because of the race discrimination, they believe that the native is the "Unwanted third race" and white is the "advanced" race. Why would the native be unwanted? Since they are not contribute to the country and the government still have responsibility to give them food (according to the beginning of the film). So the government would like to see the native disappear. And the half-cast is the combination of the two races. Since they still have half white race, the government is trying to "save" them, let them absorbed by the white society. This all the main idea me and my friend shared when we watched this film.

Jul 19th, 2012 9:35pm

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Jul 19th, 2012 9:33pm

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Cast and Crew

Director:              Phillip Noyce

Producer:             Phillip Noyce, Christine Olsen, and John Winter

Writer:                 Doris Pilkington

Screenplay:         Christine Olsen

Starring:              Everlyn Sampi, Kenneth Branagh, and David Gulpilil

Music:                  Peter Gabriel

Cinematography: Christopher Doyle

Editor:                 Veronika Jenet and John Scott

Studio:                HanWay Films

Distributor:         Miramax Filmss

Rabbit-Proof Fence. (2002). IMDb. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252444/

Jul 19th, 2012 8:16pm

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Characters Relationships

Jul 19th, 2012 7:28pm

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Personal Reflection

         Rabbit Proof Fence is a film based on historical circumstances in 1930s Australia, and opens with a narrative by Molly Craig, one of the main character focuses of the film. Molly, Gracie, and Daisy, are half-caste children, or half-aboriginal and half-white, and thus targeted for assimilation through the Moore River school. Mr. Neville, the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, forcibly removes the girls from their home in Jigalong, and the film portrays their time at the school and their subsequent escape and journey back home along the rabbit proof fence.

         The most dramatic moment in film was the initial removal of the girls from their family. The family is receiving rations at an outpost of some kind, when the three girls are removed from their family. This was an extremely dramatic moment of the film, as was the point in which Molly and Daisy separate from Gracie and witness Gracie being taken away once more, and subsequently never see her again. The film is largely dedicated to the girl’s journey from Moore River back to their home in Jigalong, a journey of over a thousand miles.

          Some aspects or slight nuances of the film were particularly intriguing, and I found myself wondering if those particular aspects were true to historical record, or merely for entertainment purposes. For example, the scene in which Mr. Neville is explaining the educational style of Moore River and the purpose of his job to a group of women who are continual donors. Also the interaction between Mr. Neville’s office and the police and the press during the search for the girls was also an interesting, albeit small part of the film. There seemed to be an enormous amount of concern about the public appearance of the office, and the way news of the runaways was portrayed Australian media. The film did leave some unclear or unanswered questions about the situation in Australia at that time, but overall was an informative allegory. 

Jul 19th, 2012 4:52pm

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THE ORIGINATION OF THE TITLE "RABBIT PROOF FENCE"

Rabbit proof was completed in 1907, it is said to be the longest fence in the world, the construction of which would not have been possible without the use of the camel. It was a strip of barbed-wire netting that cut across half of the continent and was designed to protect farmer's crops by keeping the rabbits away. Rabbit-proof fence" as a navigation tool, was used by the girls as they walked 1500 miles across the parched Outback to return to Jigalong.  The girls walked for 9weeks, not knowing the direction they are heading to, just using their instincts and intelligence to walk along the fence (Pilkington, 1996).

Pilkington, D. (1996). The rabbit proof fence. Australia : University of Queensland press.

Jul 17th, 2012 11:13pm

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The girls being "legally" captured and sent for re-education as domestic servants. The mother could not rescue the girls.

The family of this girls were left authentic, panicking, full of anger and hopeless as they never knew if they will ever see their children again!

Jul 17th, 2012 9:20pm

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Summary

In 1931, at Jigalong, Western Australia, there were 14 year-old girl name Molly, her 8 year-old sister Daisy, and their 10 year-old cousin Grace. Their mother was Aborigine, and the father was white. Those three girls were living with their mothers happily. However, the girls were taken to Moore River Native American settlements under the ‘protection’ by Australian government’s Rehabilitation Bureau.

At the camp, they slept on a coarse bed, used toilet made by buckets, and ate poor meals. Moreover, they were not allowed to use any languages except English to adapt to the white society. One day, Molly suggested fleeing from the settlement and going back to their house. Their long journey –walking 1500 miles (2400km) to go back to their home– has started.

During the journey, they evaded the police’s chase, and bared the menace of the nature. Meanwhile, they had no idea which way to go. One day, they find the hope. One white woman told them about the ‘rabbit proof fence,’ which is linked to their home, Jigalong.

After a month since they ran away from the settlement, they finally found the rabbit proof fence. Still, the mass media and Aboriginal Rehabilitation Bureau chase the girls. Before long, Grace was captured by them. Though, Molly and Daisy didn’t give up going back. Even though the fence was broken off on their way, from people’s help, they made it to go back.

Jul 17th, 2012 8:49pm

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Cinematic Techniques

Both films and novels tell stories, but what films different from novels are the cinematic techniques which can guide audience in a certain direction. Like any other films, cinematic techniques used in the film Rabbit-Proof Fence played a crucial role. The scenes when the three children were kidnapped by the police were very shocking. Fast changing scenes and loud backing sound were used in this part to create the uneasiness and tension. Not too long before this part was the part when Mr. Neville was signing the paper to send the order to catch the three children. I notice these scenes were extremely quiet, there were no background music, and the audience can hear clearly the sound of his writing. Mr. Neville believes he was doing something for the good of the Aboriginal children, but he might never know what big harm he made for the Aboriginal families. The quietness of Mr. Neville’s office and the chaos in the kidnapping was a big contract. All of these were just shown between a few minutes.

Several first angle shots were used when the children first arrived at the Moore River Native Settlement to show their frustration in this unknown place. Such techniques were used again when Molly first met Mr. Neville. This time first angle shots were used together with close shots to show the uneasiness of Molly when she were brought before Mr. Neville.

First angle shots were used from both sides.

Jul 15th, 2012 11:16pm