The Identity of The Stolen Generation: Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington

The Identity of The Stolen Generation

Humans naturally seek a sense of belongingness and community. Along with this sense of community, self-identity begins to be influenced. Community is often found in within a country where people share common hopes and dreams while others lie on the outside and are considered different. This "difference" can both make the community stronger as well as put it at great risk, and can quite likely end with negative consequences. Colonialism was vindicated by its superiority as well as the colonists who set out to turn societies that were considered primitive, into what they believed was a more modern society. Destroying ones identity is the main component in taking over a culture because identity ties closely in with a sense of patriotism and power. The intended annihilation of identity of certain cultures is described, in-depth, in the novel Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington. A novel which tells the story of the incarceration of the aborigines in Australia during the 1930’s .
The novel, Follow The Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington is a story of one countries war while being invaded and taken over. Those who are invading, are going after aborigine’s children, taking them from their homes, and putting them into special camps. This book illustrates the journey of three girls who succeed in escaping through land inhabited by enemies and never knowing whether the people they come across are friendly or really an enemy.
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the story based on true events of three girls who are aboriginal and are forcibly taken from their families in Jigalong, Australia. The Aborigines Act put into affect the seizure of these half-caste children. The three sisters...

... middle of paper ...

...ce is used as a tool to ratify the defeat of the undeviating aboriginal people, through attempts at the attempt at an organized form of genocide. Thus illustrating equivalence between Aboriginal freedom and incarceration.
The contents of the book leave its audience emotionally overwhelmed when reading through the girls long and eventful journey back to their hometown. The reader is able to identify in some way to these three girls because they are so strong yet so young, innocent, and powerless. We have all been children at one point and through the authors words, we are also able to relate to the feelings and thoughts of these young girls and why they were so skeptical when met with strangers. The reader finds themselves in the shoes of the three girls seeing, from their point of view, their journey and what it is like to be apart of the stolen generation.