Rabbit-Proof Fence in Around the World

Nov 12, 2014 Rachel rated it liked it

Shelves: biography-memoir, australian-setting, human-suffering, racism, audiobooks, australian-authors, awful-writing, set-in-1930s, read-in-2016, australian-indigenous

An important book that highlights the plight of the Stolen Generation in Australia. These were Aboriginal, usually “half-caste” children removed from their families by force by the authorities who believed it would be better for them to be brought up as white. Nugi Garimara (Doris Pilkington) tells the story of her mother, Molly, and her two cousins Daisy and Gracie who were taken from their families in Jigalong in the 1930s and placed in the Moore River Native Settlement. The girls escape and m An important book that highlights the plight of the Stolen Generation in Australia. These were Aboriginal, usually “half-caste” children removed from their families by force by the authorities who believed it would be better for them to be brought up as white. Nugi Garimara (Doris Pilkington) tells the story of her mother, Molly, and her two cousins Daisy and Gracie who were taken from their families in Jigalong in the 1930s and placed in the Moore River Native Settlement. The girls escape and make their way back on foot an astounding 2400kms, over 9 weeks, through the Australian outback, along the Rabbit-Proof fence back to Jigalong, with white authorities and Aboriginal trackers following them and having to find bush-tucker to survive. It is a story of great courage and tenacity that is also an important story of a very ugly part of Australian history that needs to be told and heard. Unfortunately, I found the writing style at times off-putting as it frequently told rather than showed. I prefer to let the events and the characters tell me their own story rather than needing the author to point out for me that something is bad or racist etc., usually this is fairly obvious from the story! The beginning of the book included a rather confusing piece-meal run down of Australian post-colonial history. I also found it difficult to form a clear picture of the trio as separate entities, they were frequently referred to as "the girls,” and tended to blend into one amorphous being for me. The end of the book was a fairly rushed and confusing postscript telling what happened to the three after their journey. The thing that I am finding it hard to get beyond is, after the harrowing experience of being torn away from her family and community and placed in the prison-like Moore River Native Settlement, why Molly herself as an adult abandons her daughter there? She takes one child and leaves the other behind; truly baffling after a story like this. Nevertheless it was an important book that was worth reading. ...more

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Sep 12, 2010 Toni rated it liked it

Shelves: multi-cultural, biography-memoir, history, australia

I would give this four stars for content, based on the heroic story of the three young "half-caste" Aboriginal girls escape from their government imposed institutional settlement in 1931 Australia. The author, daughter of one of the escapees, presents a fairly good history of the white settlement of Southwestern Australia and the edict they imposed on the native people. That being said, the writing seems undeveloped.
However, my admiration is for for the plucky girls who bravely made their way a ...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Chieko rated it liked it

Shelves: cminnow-travel-log-2012

My Australia book for Around the Word In 52 Books Challenge.

Took me a bit to get into the book. Such a sad story and amazing. Didn't realize there was a glossary till.acer I finished the book. ...more

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Jun 13, 2019 K rated it liked it

Shelves: feminism-reads, ya, ibo-pyp-atl-collaboration, ibo-learner-profile-inquirers, ibo-learner-profile-risk-takers, ibo-atl-self-management-skills, australia, indigenous-reads

If one were doing an inquiry of what indigenous feminism would look like, add this book. The accomplishment of the young lady in this book, who instinctively knew she did not belong in the white man's 'school,' and hightailed it out of there with her younger sister is deeply impressive. She navigated, without maps, using just landmarks like the rabbit-proof fence back to her people. It took weeks! ...more

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