Rabbit Proof Fence by

Prompt

alyssalyons1 — 2023-09-26 17:57:27 UTC

The film Rabbit Proof Fence (2002) highlights how settler colonialism is traceable to the origins of formal schooling. The film speaks to the role of residential and missionary schools in Australia in the 1930's and details the impact those schools had on Aboriginal communities--communities that resisted in myriad ways to hold onto their families, cultures, and humanity.

For this week’s prompt, discuss how settler colonialism is etched into the very fabric of The Moore River Settlement in Australia by providing specific examples drawn from the film. Be sure to be detailed and descriptive here.

Settler Colonialism- Veronica Estefany

veronicaestefany25 — 2023-10-12 02:46:44 UTC

In the movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence," we can see how a practice called settler colonialism affected a place called The Moore River Settlement in Australia. Here are some examples from the movie:

Taking Kids Away: The government takes Aboriginal kids away from their families. This is part of settler colonialism, where they want to make these kids forget their culture and become more like the settlers.
Losing Their Culture: Kids at Moore River can't speak their own language or do their cultural things. They're made to dress like the settlers and forget their Aboriginal ways.
Bad Living Conditions: The place where the kids are kept is not very nice. It's overcrowded, and they don't get proper care. This shows how little the settlers cared about the Indigenous people.
Not Much Learning: The schools at Moore River don't give the kids a good education. They mostly teach them to be like the settlers, not to be themselves.
Running Away: The movie is about how three girls run away from Moore River to go back to their families. This shows that they didn't want to be part of this system and wanted to be with their loved ones.
Tough Times: The girls faced many difficulties at Moore River, like not getting good food, getting punished harshly, and not getting proper healthcare. This is how settlers treated Indigenous people unfairly.
Impact on Families: When kids are taken away from their families, it hurts everyone. It breaks families apart and causes long-lasting pain. The movie shows how hard it was for the girls and their families.

In "Rabbit-Proof Fence," The Moore River Settlement represents how settler colonialism tried to erase Aboriginal culture and hurt Indigenous families. The movie also shows how strong and determined the girls were to fight against this and be with their families.

Ana Maria Morel Diallo

2023-10-12 18:24:38 UTC

In the movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence", settler colonialism very much existed in the land of Australia. Due to the fact that aborigines and whites began intermarrying, the Australian government stepped in and decided to take the half-caste children away from their families, not giving the family any saying what happens to the child. Half caste children was a term used to denote children with one Caucasian and one Aboriginal parent. The half caste children was also known as the stolen generations due to the name change that the government was issuing to them in a square card, which these card's were used for their new identity, when they were taken to the settlement homes. Making it hard for the birth parents to find them. In the settlement homes their was padlocks on doors, bars on the windows, no proper bathroom in place except for a pale bucket to use for body waste, and a concrete building with little light and no electricity was used for punishments. No proper education was being taught only what the whites thought to be correct to teach them.

Settler-Colonialism -Justin Briones

2023-10-13 02:10:51 UTC

The movie, "Rabbit-Proof Fence," provides a harrowing first-hand experience of what settler-colonialism does to both a culture and people. The protagonists of the movie are subjected to the horrors of abduction in the beginning of the movie and are forcefully enrolled to a settlement in order to meet the demands of an oppressive way of life. Protector of Western Australian Aborigines goal is to, "save," them from themselves and provide a, "better," life for Aboriginals, slowly cultivating them to be part of their, "perfect white society." The Moore River Settlement is such an institution where they kidnap Aboriginal children. The children are confined, forced to adopt a different religion and lifestyle, stripped of their cultural identity, and are treated like animals in a zoo. If they deviate even slightly from what their captors consider, "normal," they suffer corporal punishment. The protagonist of the story, Molly risks her life and the lives of her younger sister and cousin in order to escape the hellish place. In the movie we see aspects of indoctrination through the actions of captors of the Moore River Settlement. To completely erase the culture of a people was their goal, as it was to exert their power for a, "greater good." The children's terrible living conditions and lack of education also played a role in order to break down the children to make them more susceptible to the new lifestyle. The movie though informative, showed how devastating of an impact settler-colonialism has on people and culture.

Rabbit Proof Fence

anthonyphillips570 — 2023-10-15 14:16:10 UTC

There was this clear colonial system in place to whitewash a culture for white supremacy! I saw so many Anabellum Slavery elements there to completely; and systematically wipe out who they had been historically in that land. And then there was this Nazi element added of cross breeding and eliminating certain unions with those who looked like them. Then there was this direct attempt to remove their heritage language as we see today in many school settings, as well as this banking system of do as I say and not as you wish. Had been displayed in the film when a girl was being washed up and ordered to put garments on in front of everyone. Then there was this colonial order of portraying white as dominant and better, and to be listened to and depended on for all of one's salvation, if you just behave and be obedient to your orders. As this had been witnessed in the film with the tracker when wanting his liberation only to be told that his own child had to remain. This appears as the welfare system or childcare agencies today when placing an anonymous call. Even today as parents cannot discipline a child if the white powers that be wanting to allow it or have them returned if they feel you have not met certain factors to have them returned to you just as the tracker. Their condition of living during early colonial rule appeared to be what redlining is today no loan help, no civilian aide, and no way to move from place to place. This is what most low-income areas face today. Then there was this prison element that I say displayed by their colonial masters; and that was the condition of moving to banging, screams of anger, silence even with fast eating like hogs, no talking! all of which is displayed in any prison setting today. And there was an educational system that was set up only English speech, and song in order to portray that was all the world contained. I did not see a bathroom, but a bucket was tossed out daily. And there is this prison I was confined to in the 70s and they had these isolation cell called German Cells and the toilet was a hole in the floor. I was moved by the movie and then reminded how there were no men around. Just as Arican American Women lost their men to early colonial oppressions and rule as they are still today. However, there is always a heroine in a journey to freedom and the film expressed that triumph and lost during the girl's quest. The film displayed to me that we are still under some settler's colonial ways. I think it's just the 1% we do not know. The Vanguards, Blackstone who own what 90% of all we have on the stock exchange; What color is the 1%? what and who are they generational early colonialist? it appears this way. Films as the Rabbit Fence are applauded for the insight, they share to us in search of better and more inclusive humane ways to co-exist together from an invade, migration, or from any un-usual contact its equitable and a fair comradery.

Donell Moss Padlet 4

2023-10-16 02:24:01 UTC

In this week padlet 4 , it was about Rabbit-proof fence , a movie about colonialism that was affected within a place called The Moore River, it was astonishing how colonial take place within The More River. it was about how 3 kids got abducted and taken away by colonalizers and placed in a society where their was other natives just like them. seem to say that , they just wanted to go home back to their mom. One got killed and 2 survive, it showed that doesn't matter how far you kidnap or try to change a person, they will always go back home where they was connected. the movie was sick, the settlers have sex with the native Indians in order to own them then sell the kids to the other colonials. the government was treating them like animals and trying to wipe the their race away but it failed. the 3 kids figured out what to do and left that god forbidding place , they got punish they was speaking their native language, all the kids was using one bathroom and they was being torture at breakfast, lunch and dinner. the whites plan was to take them out and transform them into beings that they deem was normal but It didn't work especially in today's world

Rabbit Proof Fence

2023-10-18 01:22:26 UTC

In this film Colonialism reared its ugly face, first in the land in which the natives were forced to live. The land was so barren it was extremely difficult to produce adequate produce and the lack of convenience to water contributed to poor performing livestock, additionally colonialism presented itself when it was shown that the children's schools were sub-par and inadequate unless you were selected by the oppressors to be eligible for better educational opportunities, because of the pigmentation of their skin. colonialism, continuously reared its ugly face throughout this entire film.

Nicole Carter

2023-10-18 17:01:48 UTC

The Rabbit proof fence was hard to watch. Watching kids being taking from their homes to a white dominant area where the white man thought he was providing a better way of life was Sicking. Their living conditions were terrible, they were living in a room all together, no bathroom with just a bucket for about 10 plus kids. They had been trained to follow strict rules, learning certain task and condition to follow strict orders. The more fear skinned children was deliver or sent to regular school to match up with the average white kids. This was clearly a sense of white supremacy control. They made sure to bother a helpless village that had no way to defeat them or even put up a fight. Kids were forced to run their entire life even after they became adults. This all-displayed settler colonialism and it was a clear view of cultural ethnic and cultural inferiority.

Teiranni

2023-10-18 17:26:02 UTC

In the movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence", settler colonialism affected The Moore River Settlement in Australia. This place practiced strict segregation and removed children from their parents if they were considered to be half cast. Half cast is a person of mixed race. In the film, three girls were taken away from their mother because they were half cast. Their parents tried to intervene but wasn't successful . Being that this was a part of the law, their was only so much that their parents could do. They were taken from their families by Europeans to go to a training camp as part of the government policy to integrate them into white society. They were trained to clean, to speak properly, and to be re-educated to the western ways. The assertion is that this measure would eventually bred out the half caste within a few generations.

Film Rabbit Proof France

cristalaperez — 2023-10-20 08:06:59 UTC

The Rabbit Proof France movie showed the reality of what it's like to experience settler-colonialism and having your culture and ethnic identity erase. The aboriginal community is a target of this settler colonialism. Starting with the children that are shown to be "half-casted". In the movie Mr. Neville wants to send all children who are half casted to Moore River Native Settlement, a place where they can be more "civilized" and fix this problem of half casted children. Mr. Neville wanted to fix/better the race by separating these kids from a young age. When the children are taken away from their family, they are sent to Moore River Native Settlement. Here is where they have to learn to assimilate and learn a new language, adopt a new religion, new names and forget their old lives. The kids here "didn't" have parents, all they had was themselves and new identities that they now had to live with. These film shows the globalization of anti-blackness and how much they wanted to erase their identity and people. In the school they couldn't speak their native tongue. If they tried to escape, they would be brought back and punish for what they did. When the girls escaped, they spent weeks looking for them because it was so important that they had to "fix" them. In the movie we get to see how they have to indoctrinate the children to believe new things, new right from wrong. They are teaching things their way especially how the kids talk to the nuns. At one point we get to see how one of the older girls, Mavis, who was in the Moore River institute helped the girls hide while they were escaping. Mavis knew and felt their struggles of escaping. We get to see a glimpse of how life is for Mavis living as a help and how much she doesn't like being there. To me this part of the movie was important because even if taking them to Moore River they are "helping" these children, they aren't. The situation that Mavis experiences could be happening all over Australia to many other kids who had been put in Moore River. This movie showed the truth of what many go through in these types of schools. We didn't see any proper educational system at this place, all we saw was an objective to breed out the aboriginal people.

Kevin Casado #4

2023-11-01 15:56:47 UTC

Settler Colonialism and its effects on education is a central theme in the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence". This movie showed us how the Moore River Settlement had a negative effect on the original settlers in Australia. It was evident while watching this movie that the settlers wanted to eradicate the culture of the people. Even further, their skin color, traditions and just them as a people completely. The main goal of the colonizers here was to create a single race and essentially "white-wash" the indigenous people of Australia, also known as the Aboriginals.

The young children, in this movie specifically the young girls, were forced to attend a school ran by the colonizers at a specific age. This school's main purpose was not to provide a "traditional" education as we know it in our society, such as reading and math. But to make sure that the indigenous children were to learn how to act the "right" way. The problem with that is that the people deciding the "right" way are the people who have higher status and more access to resources. This socialization that was occurring in this school was eradicating the culture of the aboriginals. More pass the culture it was teaching the children how to obey their "master" and look up to being accepted by the "master". They could not get a proper education unless they passed a skin test which is predicated on skin color. The purpose of this was to reach a whiter skin color by the time they reached two or three generations down the line. All under the guise of "helping", these colonizers main purpose was to get rid of a nation's culture all because they felt superior to the Aboriginals.

Rabbit Proof Fence- Padlet #4 -Estefania Rodriguez

estefrodriguez19 — 2023-11-27 01:52:16 UTC

The Rabbit Proof Fence is a film that quite evidently shows how settler colonialism affects the culture identity of people in this case of that in Australia.

The three sisters were the main characters of the film. They were abducted by the white men by force and then brought in The Moore River. While there, the girls had to pray, eat, and work the way they were directed to. The change for them was instilled in all children that it was for their well being so that they can become better children in society. The girls were to loose their identity and their native language as they were to dress. They did not have any sense of individualism because they were thought to be as the settlers not "free" as they were brought up to be.

The settlers in other words were trying to do a native cultural cleansing. They were thought that these individuals (natives)were savages. and in doing the cleansing they were to become better to society but instead they were yet still seen as aborginals because of their skin.

Samantha Dennehy

sdennehy1797 — 2023-12-19 02:37:48 UTC

In this film, we learn about a group of sisters who are being kidnapped and sent to schools similar to the American residential schools. The goal of these schools is to rip the native culture away from Native (or, in Australia, where the movie takes place, Aboriginal) children and mold them into model citizens of their country. The children are viewed as filthy and unholy. Some examples of settler colonialism in the movie are when they forced the children to change their religion, give up their language, and overall their culture. The goal of the settlers was to assimilate the children into Australian society.

Padlet 4- Nicole Alvarado

nicolealvarado2002 — 2023-12-19 12:26:05 UTC

The Rabbit Proof Fence film conveyed adversities of colonialism to indigenous individuals. To be half-casted in Australia symbolized treasure. Their DNA was an opportunity for the nation to implant Eurocentric properties into them. In the movie, Mr. Neville developed a blueprint of the country and located target areas with half-caste populations. Molly, Gracie, and Daisy were victims of colinization. They were stripped away from their tribe and taken into Moon River. It was the designated site to “purify” the behavior and identity of the children. Molly realized the toxicity of the ambiance way before the other girls did. Uniforms, controlled meals, unilanguiliasm are the tools for the children to “graduate.” However, when the man they referred to as “God” visited, tensions quickly shifted. Children were inspected based on their skintone, to be light enough meant they’ll leave with this man. In a way, it sold the students that if they conform to these norms, they’ll be granted freedom from Moon River. That night, Molly decided to escape. The tracker’s story displayed the influence of exploitation. He was under a trap without realizing. His duty was to track children that escaped as an incentive to free his daughter and himself. However, Europeans blinded the reality that his daughter will not be liberated. From the shackles of colonization, we immediately see the power of cultural instict. Molly walked through a desert because of a fence that shaped their childhood. She felt her mother. However, Mr. Neville put all his money and effort into tracking the girls. Daisy gave up and was captured. She faced fatal consequence. The ending scene displayed the tribe uniting and scaring the White officer off. It shows that indigenous people are not inferior and could resist against colonization.

Cecilia Guzman Martinez

2023-12-21 03:32:39 UTC

There was very different parts from the film, in where settler colonialism was shown. One example was that the government was thinking that they knew what was best for the communities that they don't understand and want them to convert them into individuals who can fit into their type of normal society. The government though that they knew what was best and in order to do that they took the kids away from their parents/mom's and inserted them into a colonized school system to learn. According to the personal responsible for this action said he was trying to help them by giving them a chance to education and knowledge. With in the school they made the kids go to church and wear the same color outfits. They had them on schedule's like when to take a shower and eat. Another example would be that the kids with the lighter skin tone would be more privileged than other kids who had a more dark skin tone. The living condition that they had the kids in, where worse than the ones they had at home. They tried to make them forget their indigenous language and only speak English. Their culture was being taken away from them slowly first by the way they dressed and then by the way that talked. Everyone sang the same song, it was like a cult they had been taken into and forced to follow the rules and live by them.

Monay Butler

2023-12-23 12:28:11 UTC

In the film, Rabbit Proof Fence, we see the true story of how 3 sisters are forced to attend a residential school against their will and against their parents wishes. Settler colonialism is attached to this school because the students are being forced to forget their culture and ways of living to adopt what the authority is telling them is the right way of living. The school is using the students in the school to push their agenda of what they believe normal living standards should be. The settlement was less about education but more about stripping the children of their beliefs, morals and values. They also use tactics to scare the children into doing what they want them to do. If a child was disobedient in their eyes they would be beaten. This abuse was a way of showing who the children who had authority so they would stay in place. The film shows how colonial settlers have forced their agenda by abusing, kidnapping and killing individuals because they felt superior.

Jayden Stephens

2023-12-26 21:39:04 UTC

The film Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the true story of three Indigenous Australian girls and their escape from a state institution aimed at assimilating part aboriginal children into white society.

In the 1930s, Australia’s government introduced a policy allowing for the removal of Aboriginal children from their families to be westernized. The three girls set to walk back home following a rabbit-proof fence that stretches across the vast Australian outback.

The movie demonstrates how government institutions tried to wipe away indigenous culture, forcing them to assimilate through education. This journey that the characters make is an act of defiance against an oppressive schooling system that sought to cut off their umbilical cord from their ancestral land.

Rabbit-Proof Fence encapsulates issues about settler colonialism, assimilation policies impacts on indigenous communities, as well as an indomitable spirit in overcoming systemic oppression.