the colonial inequalities and Rabbit Proof fence

An Australian drama called Rabbit Proof Fence tells the true story of the author’s mother, who was forced to leave her family at the age of 14 and move to a civilized society. She received instruction and training from the government there on how to be a house helper. The movie follows the girl’s attempt to escape the facility and return to her family, along with her sister and cousin (Windschuttle, 12). The three girls are optimistic they will make it home despite the 1500 miles it will take to get there because they think Molly, the writers’ mother, will be able to use the fence put up in the colony to guide them there. The release of the film faced criticism regarding the innocence of the girls and the native’s lives, marred by the cruelty of the white settlers. Rabbit proof fence faced criticism for the unfair representation of the white men.

Rabbit proof fence dates back to the colonial eras known for their inferior view of the Aboriginal community. White people reserved the right to choose any area to settle, which restricted the movement of the local community. Some of them went to extreme measures by taking huge pieces of land and claiming the land to be personal (Windschuttle, 12). Captain Freemantle took possession of one million square miles of the land and named it as his colony, the Swan River. The settles swooped in the area and took over everything from running the way the lives of the locals to making decisions for their futures.

The culture of the Aboriginal people banished and replaced by the culture of the settlers. The locals abandoned their culture and forced to keep English cultures such as the traditional foxhunts and teatime. The aim of the colonizers was to destroy the Aboriginal’s culture and bred the population into their ways. The white man already decided the fate and life of the people.

As the two communities interacted in their day-to-day activities, interbreeding occurred and led to the birth of progeny termed as the half-caste. The children face a lot of discrimination from their fellow kids. However, they behaved in a civilized manner compared to them. The behavior of the half-caste prompted the settlers to set an institution for teaching the children regarding being a servant (Lydon, 137). Half-castes are taken away from their families without consent and enrolled in the institution for learning. The behavior continued into the next generation.

The locals are not equals; they lack fundamental rights of any human being such as the right of choice. While the settlers choose any piece of land to live in, the people do not have the right of freedom, as they are not free in their land. The absence of freedom is evident in the way that the settlers separated the innocent children from their parents to unknown lands. All this is done to appease the need for the settler to have servants in their homes. Their role in the community is limited to servitude compared to the white men who view themselves as the gods of the areas. The two communities are not on the same level due to their differences in skin tone.

The conflict between the Aboriginals and the settlers is a representation of the white men’s attitude towards the local, as the issues remain the same in other colonies. Passage to India depicts the differences in the setting of the English and the Indian environment, which is the same case as seen in the context of Aboriginals and the cities of the English, which amazed the children. There are different living conditions between the Indians and the English men as the colonizers live in luxuries conditions while the natives are struggling to survive. Aboriginals had their lands grabbed and limited their resources for finding basic needs like food and shelter.

Works cited

Lydon, Jane. “A Strange Time Machine.” Australian Historical Studies, vol. 35, no. 123, Apr. 2004, pp. 137-148. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=13828162&site=ehost-live.

Windschuttle, Keith. “Rabbit-Proof Fence: ’A True Story’?.” New Criterion, vol. 21, no. 7, Mar. 2003, p. 12. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9209770&site=ehost-live.