Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence

Infobox Book
name = Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Doris Pilkington
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Biography
publisher = University of Queensland Press
release_date = 1996
english_release_date =
media_type =
pages = 136 pp
isbn = ISBN 0702227099
preceded_by =
followed_by = Under the Wintamarra Tree

"Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" is an Australian book by Doris Pilkington. Based on a true story, the book is a personal account of an Indigenous Australian family's experiences as members of the "Stolen Generation" – the forced removal of mixed-caste children from their families during the early 20th century. It tells the story of three young Aboriginal girls: Molly (the author's mother), Daisy (Molly's sister) and their cousin Gracie, who escape from a government settlement in 1931 and trek over 1,600 kilometres home by following the Rabbit-proof fence, a massive pest-exclusion fence which crossed Western Australia from north to south.

Publication

Doris Pilkington had spent much of her early life from the age of four at the Moore River Native Settlement in Western Australia, the same facility the book chronicles her mother escaping from as a child. After re-uniting with her family, Pilkington says she did not talk to her mother much, and she was not aware of her mother's captivity at Moore River, or the story of their escape, until her Aunt Daisy told her the story. Repeating the story at an Aboriginal family history event in Perth, one of the attendees told her he was aware of the story and that the case was fairly well-documented. He gave her some documents and clippings which formed the factual backbone of the story on which Pilkington based a first draft.Quin, Karl: [http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/film/sunage17feb02.html Molly's story] , "The Sunday Age", 17 February 2002. Retrieved from Kooriweb.org on 6 December 2007.]

She submitted the draft to a publisher in 1985, but was told it was too much like an academic paper, and that she should try her hand at writing fiction. Her first novel, "Caprice, A Stockman's Daughter", won the David Unaipon Literary Award and was published in 1990 by the University of Queensland Press. Pilkington then rewrote and filled out "Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence" following several years of interviewing her mother and aunt, and it was published in 1996.

ummary

The book tells the story of Molly Craig, a 14-year-old Aboriginal girl, who is deemed "half-caste" by the Australian government. Along with two members of her family, her 8-year-old sister Daisy Craig and their 10-year-old cousin Gracie Fields, Molly is taken by police officers from her mother in the community of Jigalong and transported 1,600 kilometres to the Moore River Native Settlement. In 1931, the three girls escape from Moore River, and with no maps or compasses, use the immense State Barrier Fence which crosses Western Australia to navigate home. [Matheo, Demetrios: [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/09/04/bfabor04.xml The long walk home] , "The Daily Telegraph", 1 September 2002.]

Film adaptation

Shortly after the book's publication, the film rights were obtained by scriptwriter Christine Olsen, who wrote the script and was persistent in her pitching of the film to Hollywood-based Australian director Phillip Noyce. Noyce agreed to direct the film, which was released in 2002 and starred Everlyn Sampi as Molly, and British actor Kenneth Branagh as A. O. Neville, the Chief Protector of Aborigines.

References