Rabbit-Proof Fence

"Rabbit Proof Fence"

What comes to your mind when you here the words "stolen generation." Maybe you think of the Holocaust when the Jews were unwilling taken to concentration camp's to suffer before their horrific death. Or you might think of the European settlers going to Africa to literally kidnap its people and bring them to the Americas for slave labor. Both are good assumptions but are far from what the "stolen generation" really is. Until watching the documentary "Rabbit Proof Fence" I would have thought the same. In this paper I will discuss what the "stolen generation" really is and reasons why it happened. Second, what the rabbit-proof fence is. Lastly, I will explain what the rabbit-proof fence symbolizes for the Australians and aborigines.

The "stolen generation" refers to the hundreds of thousands of aborigine children taken from their families in the 1900's in Australia. These children where usually of mixed decent and there removal was believed to be protecting the interests of the Australian people. The children were taken to internment camps and orphan homes. The most well know is Moore River. The purpose of doing this was to literally breed out the aboriginal people so that in a few generations you could not tell a descendent of the Australians to an aborigine. A. O. Neville was the Proctor of Aborigines and truly believed he was doing the right thing by taking these children.

The rabbit-proof fence is a series of three fences. The No. 1 Fence which runs from north to south is 1,139 miles long from Wallal to Jerdacuttup. The second fence No.2 Fence which is about half the length of the No. 1 Fence and runs parallel to the west. And last the No.3 Fence which is the shortest of the three and runs from east to west until it connects with the No. 2 Fence. In all the three fences took six years to complete and are approximately 2,203 miles long. This information was obtained from Encyclopedia Britannica.

Now that you know a little back ground of the rabbit-proof fence what is the significance of the fence to the Australians verses the aborigines. The fence was originally built to keep the growing rabbit population to the west so that they did not eat the settler's crops to the east. To the settler's the fence was nothing more than a fence. The aborigines saw the fence