Racism and the Rabbit Proof Fence

Preconceptions about race prevented the white Australians from accurately assessing the needs, motivations and behaviors of Aboriginals by giving the white Australians a bias in their own minds that served as an agonist towards the race that was different from their own. In many ways it was no different in America, where the White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) viewed the blacks and the Mexicans and the Catholics as subhuman or of a lower class or caste which should not be allowed to populate or hold political power. In the end, it is all about control, and the people who put up the fences and who try to keep the Aboriginals out are the ones who are acting subhuman.

The white Australians are represented by Mr. Devil who really is called that by the Aboriginals because he possesses no human goodness. Human goodness and charity sees beyond race and ethnicity and recognizes that we are all of the same family. The Devil wants to break the bond and drive people against one another, so it could be said that the white Australians and siding with the wrong spiritual faculty in the film (and in history) by relocating the girls to the re-education camp so that they can be bred out of existence. Again, this is not surprising. The WASPs in the U.S. were also interested in eugenics and practiced sterilizing blacks and poorer populations. It comes from a disrespect for humanity and a sense of superiority because of background and pedigree. This disrespect was not common among the early missionaries, however, because they viewed everyone as of the same family and just wanted to spread the faith.

In the film the white Australians are prevented from seeing the Aborigines as humans who have talents and gifts and needs and desires because they do not even dare to look at them this way. Doing so would be like putting them on an equal footing. It would be like stepping off the grand and mighty high perch that people who are proud like to stand on so that they can demonstrate their own superiority.

The Aborigines obviously have talents though. The girls for instance are able to hide their tracks from the Aborigine hunter who is after them. They also get help from others in the outback, which shows that people can be kind to one another if they just remove their bias, their pride, and their own sense of being superior.

The Aborigines were motivated by feelings of needing to be with family, of needing to be with their home, just like anybody else. The girls can certainly not be faulted for wanting to leave the re-education camp in search of the place they grew up. That is what they know and it makes sense that they would feel a longing for it and an attachment to be back there. Did any of the white Australians take the time or opportunity to discuss the point of the camp or to get to know the girls and ask what they would like to do? Why forcibly move people around at all? What is one trying to accomplish? People are not slaves and should not be treated as such, but when the white Australians think of the Aborigines they think of them as slaves who need to be administered over and taken care of for their own good. In fact, they don’t even really want them there at all. They want them gone, out of the way, as if they were reflecting badly on the whites and spoiling the good time that the whites were having. It was as if the Aborigines were viewed as a threat to the white Australians in some way. But clearly the whites were the real threat. How did they get to be that way? Was it the Protestant ethic that they had? Was it a lack of charity? Was it pride? Racism? The mystery might not ever be explained, but the fact that it is there should serve as caution enough for everyone.