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Running head, The Aboriginal Question via The Rabbit Proof Fence

The Aboriginal Question via The Rabbit Proof Fence

Jay McKechnie
Feb 7, 2015

The film Rabbit Proof Fence tells the story of the Aborigine struggle against
colonialist powers of Western Australia in 1931. The film begins by explaining that for
the past 100 years, the Aborigines have been resisting colonialism. Then Mr. A.O
Nelville becomes the Chief Protector of Aborigines in the State of Western Australia.
Mr. Nelville, or as the Aborigines refer to him - Mr. Devil, is responsible for
implementing the Aborigines Act. Mr. Nelville is given the full authority to remove any
half-breeds within the state. Australia seeks to rid the country of the Native problem for
good by removing half-breeds from their family. Neville expresses the fear that if this is
task is not successful; the creation of an unwanted third race will be born out of the
increasing population of half-breeds.
Molly is the films protagonist and narrator and is a half-breed herself. She comes
from the Jigalong Mob and is fathered by a white man who is helping build the rabbit
proof fence across Australia. Molly, her sister Daisy, and their cousin Gracie are all
taken to Moore River Native Settlement to be trained as domestic servants. The
institutionalization of Aboriginals forms a common narrative across the colonial world. In
Canada the residential school experiment attempted to assimilate Canadas Aboriginal
peoples into mainstream society.
I will examine the films underlying assumptions by discussing education as a
vehicle of oppression. I will begin by relating Angus McLarens work on the history of
eugenics in Canada to provide a historical context for the ideas that guided assimilation
policies. I will then turn to Malcolm Gladwells ideas of thin slicing to discuss the way
we make rapid judgements based on race. I will conclude by connecting Michel
Foucaults ideas on how institutions impose discipline in order to maintain power.

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Eugenics was born out of evolutionary theory where heredity and the environment
govern progress (McLaren, 1990). It was believed that through direct intervention,
society could control and improve, the overall makeup of society by eliminating elements
considered imperfect. It is difficult to judge these theories in retrospect, as the vast
majority of intellectual and scientific leaders at the time supported this model. Countries
such as Canada and Australia, however, are historically guilty for applying these theories
in practice against their Aboriginal populations. As Nelville proclaims, We face an
uphill battle, especially with the bush natives, who need to be protected against
themselves. If only they would understand that we are trying to help them. Nelville
expresses the honest belief that the government knows best for its citizens.
Molly, Gracie and Daisy live at the Jigalong Depot. This is a camp where the
fence builders live, but it is also where food rations are handed out to the Aborigines.
Mollys father is a white fence builder. Half-breeds result from, one can assume, abuse
of Aborigine women at the hands of white men. However it is the Aborigines who are
meant to suffer for these criminal acts. The police arrive at Jigalong Depot to remove the
three girls. The women of the camp attempt to resist the kidnapping, while the policeman
waves a piece of paper at them saying, its the law, you have no say in this (The Rabbit
Proof Fence, 2002). The girls are put in a cage and transported by train to Moore River
Native Settlement where the Australian Government trains Aborigines to be domestic
servants and farm labours. The ultimate goal is to breed out Aborigine blood. In the
words of Nelville, The native must be helped (The Rabbit Proof Fence, 2002).
It is the goal of the government to train hundreds of half-breeds for the future.

Upon arrival at Moore, the girls express a palpable fear of this new place. They are not
allowed to speak their native tongue, and are introduced to church hymns and prayer.
There is strict discipline in this place. You stand when told, and eat with permission.
The girls are told about another school, Sister Kates, where Aborigines are sent if they
are fair skinned. We learn that this is a proper school where one receives a higher
education rather the manual labour skills.
The obvious destructiveness and violence involved in these policies are now
judged by history as immoral. We can now look back and say these policies were unjust.
In todays society, we like to place ourselves above these clearly racist practices. I would
argue that these ideas sill persist in society, but that they remain just under the surface in
our unconscious.

In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell celebrates individuals who are able to make quick
decisions based on what he terms, thin slicing. Essentially, thin slicing involves
individuals making rapid decisions without thinking, based on their recognition of
patterns in situations where they have little experience (Gladwell, 2005). I would argue,
along with Gladwell, that we also do this in terms of judging people based on race. As
Gladwell states, we have to acknowledge and understand those circumstances when
rapid cognition leads us astray (Gladwell, 2005, p.76). Race does not exist as a
biological reality, rather, it is constructed by social norms, ignorance, and historically
entrenched ideas informed by theories such as evolution and eugenics. We live in a
conceptual world. Every idea, emotion, and experience belongs to a family of concepts.
This is how we make sense of the world and interact with it. We separate things into the

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proper conceptual framework in order to understand, but this attempt to separate can also
result in discriminatory ideas and behaviour. The septic nature of racism is that it lingers
under the surface in our concepts. We might not think of ourselves as racist, but
sometimes, as Gladwell explains, our unconscious attitudes many be utterly
incompatible with out stated conscious values (Gladwell, 2005, p.85).
The rabbit proof fence operates as a conceptual separation through its literal and
allegorical purpose. The stated objective of the fence is to separate rabbits from the
farmland. But it also serves as an allegorical separation between agricultural settlers and
the hunter-gather society of the Aborigines. The Aborigines exist at the margins of
settled land. Farmland is defined by it relationship to the bush, which in the mind of the
settler is undefined, uninhabited, and unproductive land. Farmland represents civilization
and progress. For Aborigines to be incorporated into society, they must be removed from
the bush. It is a clearly formulated conceptual framework on the part of the Australian
Government to bring Aborigines into the fabric of society in order to extend farmland
(civilization). This is based on the simple conclusion that white blood is superior to dark
blood. Again, in this time period, those in power really felt they were doing what was
best for Aborigines. But as Galdwell points out, we dont deliberately choose out
unconscious attitudeswe may not even be aware of them (Gladwell, 2005, p.85).
The three girls escape from the settlement and spend a total of nine weeks on the
run. When Nelville realizes the girls have planned to follow the fence back home, he
proclaims, just because people use Neolithic tools, does not mean they have Neolithic
minds (The Rabbit Proof Fence, 2002). This seems to contradict the governments idea
of Aborigines, as he expresses some delight in their cleverness. This is the truth of

racism, in the moment we blink in our conceptualization of skin colour, we become

blinded by our preconceived notions of what colour means. It obscures our ability to see
the other as human. This unconscious idea of race still permeates modern society today
through the institutionalization of racism.

The Aborigines refer to the students who experienced these assimilation policies
as the lost generations (The Rabbit Proof Fence, 2002). The intergenerational trauma
of this historical episode continues to plague Aboriginal cultures around the world. Even
today in Canada, the neoliberal agenda of schooling still attempts to train future labours
for the workforce. By taking a step back and critically examining our school system; we
can see this continues to have a detrimental affects on Aboriginal culture. Today,
Aboriginals continue to be marginalised in a school system that does not reflect their
cultures, traditions, and languages. In the not so distant past, the Canadian Government
aimed to fully assimilate Aboriginals into mainstream Canadian society through the
systematic removal of Aboriginal children to attend residential school. It was hoped that
the government could kill the Indian while saving the child.
Michel Foucault discusses the creation of a disciplinary society that assures an
infinitesimal distribution of power relations (Foucault, 1984, p.207). Institutions
both control power and provide access to power by claiming ownership of knowledge.
The growth of institutional power extends the ability of the power apparatus to increase
both the docility and the utility of all the elements of the system (Foucault, 1984, p.207).
This institutionalized ability to create docility and utility within society is most evident in
the Aborigine tracker at Moore. A young girl, Olive, is caught running away to see her

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boyfriend. We empathize with this tracker who is in an unbearable position to bring
young Aborigines back to hell. We learn that he is willing to do this as it permits him to
be close to his daughter, a resident at Moore. The tracker has become part of the
institutional apparatus, and exposes the tension of being both a tool in the system, while
losing personal autonomy.
Schooling is the most obvious example in society where this power of control is
most evident. It is most pronounced in the blatant assimilation policies of the past, but
continues in the way schools marginalize some from accessing knowledge. School are
supposed to provide power through the acquisition of knowledge, but schools also require
a certain degree of conformity to succeed. Today in Canada, Aboriginal education
continues struggle to create a sense of Aboriginal identity within the western institution
of schooling. Aboriginal students continue to face underfunding in their schools and the
impact of intergenerational trauma on learning is an ongoing issue.

We are still dealing with the effects of these racist policies of the past. We cannot
simply relegate them to history and put the blame on our predecessors. The way in which
racism today is hidden within institutions is something that needs to be challenged
constantly. Eugenics has now been replaced with genetics and psychology in how we
understand humans. How will we be judged by the next generation of our treatment of
the marginalized? The residue of these past policies still permeates our concepts of the
other. We have to work to bring the unconscious into the public discourse in order to
expose the ideas and values that continue to build fences between people.

Sources
Gladwell, M. (2005). The theory of thin slices: How a little bit of knowledge goes a long
way & The dark side of thin-slicing. In Blink: The power of thinking without
thinking. New York: Back Bay Books. (pp. 18-47 &75-88)
Foucault, M. (1984). Panopticism. In Foucault reader. New York: Pantheon Books. (pp.
206-213)
McLaren, A. (1990). Our master race: Eugenics in Canada 1885-1945. Toronto: Oxford
University Press. (pp. 7-11. pp. 13-67)
The Rabbit Proof Fence. Director: Phillip Noyce, NZ, 2002.