Asad Mehmood APHuG Mrs.

Young 11-3-11 Rabbit Proof Fence Essay Particularly in Australia, rabbits are a huge problem. Since their introduction in the 19th century Rabbits are suspected of being the most significant known factor in species loss in Australia. Rabbits often kill young trees in orchards, forests and on properties by ringbarking them. Rabbits are also responsible for serious erosion problems as they eat native plants, leaving the topsoil exposed and vulnerable to sheet, gully and wind erosion. The removal of this topsoil is devastating to the land as it takes many hundreds of years to regenerate. With mild winters, rabbits were able to breed the entire year. With widespread farming, areas that may have been scrub or woodlands were instead turned into vast areas with low vegetation, creating ideal habitat for rabbits. Thus, rabbit proof fences were created with the purpose of keeping rabbits out of agricultural, pastoral land in Western Australia. There are three fences in Western Australia. The fences took six years to build. The fences were constructed with different materials due to the local climate, and wood.

Folk and Pop culture are represented in this film as being two distinguished worlds that the Indigenous Australian girls go through. The girls of course live in the folk culture aspect of society, where there is very little interaction from outside influences and they live life peacefully and traditionally. However, that all changes when they are taken to a camp where they experience the life of pop culture or primarily they are taught how to be civilized in a western manner. This is a very different experience for them personally because they are forced to

abandon their previous folk way of life and adopt these new western ideals because thats the way the rest of the world works. The term Stolen Generation referred to the children of Australian Aboriginal and White descent who were removed from their families by Australian government. So, the girls were considered a stolen generation because they were forcefully taken by the Australian government and taken to church missions where they were forced to adapt to white culture in a desperate attempt by the Australian government to keep western conformity. Assimilation refers to the transfer of customs particularly towards migrants. In the movie, the girls had to adapt to the new culture, but they were also forced to listen to the church officials and learn how to do new things which we find ordinary because we live in a pop culture society. They had to give up their old ways and assimilate or integrate into a new culture and new ways of living.

Essentially, the story was about three girls who lived in Jigalong, Australia. They are taken by trackers and brought into a camp because they are half-casts. There they learn about the new ways of society, however, they escape because they want to go back home. Two of the girls survive but the third, Gracie is caught and sent back to camp where she dies later as said in the epilogue. The two other girls, Molly and Daisy walk 1500 miles and make it back home. Molly later has three children in the epilogue and has two of them taken away as well, she manages to escape with the third child before she too is taken away at the age of three. It is a tragic end but a real one. This film is a beautiful testament to the human spirit because the girls were strongwilled in returning home and nothing else mattered to them at all. They didnt want to conform to pop culture and kept their own traditions and values. They fought and persevered against all odds, even walking 1500 miles! They are a wonderful representation of mortal willpower.