The extraordinary story of three young girls' escape from an internment camp for mixed-race Indigenous children and their 1600 kilometre journey by foot Jigalong, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, first appeared as Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence
In 1931, three young girls escaped the Moore River Native Settlement, an internment camp for Indigenous children of mixed-race heritage and made the 1600 kilometre journey, all on foot, to their home in Jigalong. Traces of the story were on the official record, but by and large the girls' walk had been forgotten. It was only when author Doris Pilkington (Nugi Garimara) was told the story by her aunt Daisy, that she began to research it in earnest.
Pilkington's book is an interesting mix. Not quite a biography, and not quite a history, it pieces together the journey of fourteen -year-old Molly, her half sister, eight-year-old Daisy and 10-year-old cousin Gracie in a fragmentary manner, as one would expect. The book is a sort of palimpsest – layers of personal story, official records and truth-telling – neatly set down in Pilkington's clear prose to offer a humbling account of three children, members of the Stolen Generation.
The great tragedy is that Doris Pilkington was forcibly removed from her mother, Molly, when she was three-years-old and taken to Moore River Native Settlement. She didn't see her for another 21 years.
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, by Nugi Garimara (Doris Pilkington). Published by University of Queensland Press. ISBN: 9780702265976
No comments:
Post a Comment