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Guests | April 25, 2012

Jon Raymond: IMG War Stories

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So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the... Continue »
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Rabbit-Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time

by Doris Pilkington

Rabbit-Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time Cover

ISBN13: 9780786887842
ISBN10: 0786887842
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The remarkable true story of three young girls who cross the harsh Australian desert on foot to return to their home.

Following an Australian government edict in 1931, black aboriginal children and children of mixed marriages were gathered up by whites and taken to settlements to be assimilated. In Rabbit-Proof Fence, award-winning author Doris Pilkington traces the captivating story of her mother, Molly, one of three young girls uprooted from her community in Southwestern Australia and taken to the Moore River Native Settlement. At the settlement, Milly and her relatives Gracie and Daisy were forbidden to speak their native language, forced to abandon their aboriginal heritage, and taught to be culturally white. After regular stays in solitary confinement, the three girls — scared and homesick — planned and executed a daring escape from the grim camp, with its harsh life of padlocks, barred windows, and hard cold beds.

The girls headed for the nearby rabbit-proof fence that stretched over 1,000 miles through the desert toward their home. Their journey lasted over a month, and the survived on everything from emus to feral cats, while narrowly avoiding the police, professional trackers, and hostile white settlers. Their story is a truly moving tale of defiance and resilience.

Review:

"[The girls'] story is compelling and horrifying, especially because it is true. Unfortunately it doesn't really capture what these children experienced. In this case, the recent film of the same title seems to do the story more justice." KLIATT

Synopsis:

Three mixed-race Australian girls, having been taken from their Aboriginal families, escape and return home on foot, without supplies or gear, while trying to evade recapture, in an account based on a true story.
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About the Author

Doris Pilkington is also the author of Caprice: A Stockman's Daughter. Rabbit-Proof Fence, her second book, is now a major motion picture from Miramax Films, directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Kenneth Branagh.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Shoshana, June 3, 2009 (view all comments by Shoshana)
Best read in conjunction with the film, this memoir fills in details of the girls' trek that are not as explicit in the screen version. What the film provides is both a dynamism lacking in the book, and a broader context for why the Australian government would separate biracial children from their families. I was particularly fascinated by the expenditures made to recover three girls; no comparable manhunt would be mounted in our era for non-criminal escapees.

It would be interesting to compare the rationales for the general removal of native children to boarding schools in different countries, particularly the covert reasoning. The film does a better job of identifying the more pernicious aims of the program.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780786887842
Publisher:
Miramax
Location:
New York
Author:
Garimara, Nugi
Author:
Pilkington, Doris
Subject:
General
Subject:
Australian aborigines
Subject:
Escapes
Subject:
Aborigines -- Australia.
Subject:
Aboriginal Australians
Subject:
Moore River Region
Subject:
Jigalong Region
Subject:
Movie or Television Tie-In
Subject:
Australia & New Zealand - Australia
Subject:
Biography - General
Copyright:
2002
Edition Description:
TradePB
Series Volume:
2548
Publication Date:
December 2002
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
160
Dimensions:
8 x 5.1875 in 4.72 oz
Age Level:
Adult
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Related Subjects

History and Social Science » World History » Australia and New Zealand

Rabbit-Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time
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$ In Stock
Product details 160 pages Miramax Books - English 9780786887842 Reviews:
"Review" by , "[The girls'] story is compelling and horrifying, especially because it is true. Unfortunately it doesn't really capture what these children experienced. In this case, the recent film of the same title seems to do the story more justice."
"Synopsis" by , Three mixed-race Australian girls, having been taken from their Aboriginal families, escape and return home on foot, without supplies or gear, while trying to evade recapture, in an account based on a true story.
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