Daisy Kadabil and the Rabbit Proof Fence

The following email was originally posted on July 6, 2018


In Australia, there is a unique structure that runs for over 2,000 miles.  The structure is known as the Rabbit Proof Fence


The existence of this fence has become part of Australian history and folklore and, in the 1930s, served as a guide and a symbol of hope for three Aborigine girls who had been separated from their parents by a government policy that viewed assimilation into white society as being the solution to Australia's Aborigine Problem.  The shameful separation of these three girls from their parents and their people was not acceptable to these three girls.  So, although they had been sent some 1000 miles away, the girls decided to go home.

Using the Rabbit Proof Fence as their guide, the girls walked for a thousand miles through some of the most difficult terrain and heat imaginable. Their story became part of Australia's still agonized remembrance of its treatment of the Aborigine people and became the basis for an award winning film.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-Proof_Fence_(film)

Last week, the obituary for the youngest of the three girls Daisy Kadabil was published.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/obituaries/daisy-kadibil-95-whose-australia-trek-inspired-a-film-dies.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fobituaries&action=click&contentCollection=obituaries®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront

The passage of Ms. Kadabil brings to a close her trek but it does not bring to a close her story.  Her story continues today in various communities throughout this land where again a government policy serves to separate girls from their parents in a cruel manner.  Given the history of such separations in Australia, I wonder what some of those separated children in America will one day write about their experiences in this land and whether their stories will having a good ending or a bad.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

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