AUSTRALIA

This is an extract of a biography called Rabbit-Proof Fence written by Doris

PILKINGTON in 1996. It is about / It deals with the issue of Aboriginal children
who were stolen from their parents or taken by force by the Australian
government. Therefore, the title of this extract Away from Home illustrates a
concrete situation in which many Aboriginal families found themselves.

The residential schools to which the children were sent to were supposed to be
a place where those natives had to learn the white man’s culture. The church
was to see to the education of those children and in the end they would
behave like a white man or the colonisers. Indeed, the children had to speak
English instead of their dialects “can’t talk the blackfulla language here” l.33
and “we can’t talk our old wangka” l.40. But if they do not obey / abide by the
laws of the institutions, they were violently punished. For example, they “got
the strap” l.14, “their heads were shaved bold” l.13, they were fed “with just
bread and water” l.12 and they had to “parade around the compound” l.13.

Nevertheless, the fact that they were forbidden to speak their dialects meant
that those children felt uprooted from their culture / heritage. This question /
issue of loss can be linked to the documentary on Jack CHARLES where he
explains that they were forced to forget about their Aboriginality. Furthermore,
the Canadian Aborigines were also forced to “adopt[…] [a] lifestyle” that they
would pass over to the future generations. The aim of the governments, be it
Australian or Canadian, was to completely eradicate the First Nation people
from the planet both culturally and physically.

This leads us to the last point in which the four sisters had one thing in mind:
runaway. Despite the harsh punishment that would follow, all the children in
those residential schools tried to escape in order to preserve their freedom;
freedom of talk their languages and practise their cultures. But also freedom to
their Aboriginal Rights.

In a nutshell, those children ended up by running away because they went

through a lot of trauma: sexual abuse, physical and moral torture, and not
forgetting the issue of loss and displacement in space. Therefore, this topic can
be linked to Memory and Territory, because we hear and read about
testimonies from the victims but also Identity and Exchange and Diversity and
Inclusion because they lost what made them Aborigines for another culture,
i.e. English.