Phillip Noyce's The Rabbit-Proof Fence

Many people think Australia is the ‘lucky country’. This is because Australia is known for its picturesque landscape and the multiculturalism in this country. However, there are issues that recently appeared. This includes the harsh climates of the Australian outback and the discrimination in this country.

Australia is a very culturally diverse country, meaning that it consists of many cultures and ethnicities from around the world. This diversity is mostly due to immigration,

Australia is filled with many different aspects in which makes it the country it is today. I believe it is important to study texts that explore aspects of Australia by studying texts such as ‘The Club’, by David Williamson, a play written in 1977 about an Australian football club and movies such as “The Castle”, directed by Rob Stitch in 1997, about the daily life of an Australian family when their happiness is threatened when developers attempt to buy their house to expand the neighboring airport. Both these texts show us what Australian life was like in the past. By us looking at themes such as language, tradition and the mateship shown we are able to explore different aspects of Australia that make it what it is today.

What does it mean to be Australian? Is it our multiculturalism, our wicked sense of humour or is it our recognisable accent? We are unique, we have thousands of species of native animals and we are proud of it. Australia has its own slang, which could be counted as a language in itself and we have neighbours of all different races. Australia is multicultural and is extremely accepting of others, no matter the country from which they have immigrated from, it is an Australian value. Furthermore, we respect and accept others religions and cultures into our society.

We can presume from the numerous emphasized lines indicating Australia’s uniqueness, that the distinctiveness of Australia is the main reason for the persona’s perplexing attachment and love for her country.

Through the use of poetic devices, the author has successfully encouraged the audience to explore their thoughts on Australian identity and to reflect on our nation’s history.

The characters in the film are how Australians really are. The characters are examples of stereotypical Australians. The men are tough, big and buff, they are hard working beer-drinking men. When the workers are not working they are usually at the pub. It’s a small community where everyone knows each other and it’s like a family. They have good humour and can insult each other without taking real offence. They reflect the attitude of Australians in their way of language and how they say things. They use colloquial language, slang and joke around with each other. Many Australians do this today also. They are a multicultural society, which is exactly what Australia is. People from all around the world are characters in this movie. They also drink lots of beer, appear rough and are dirty and grimy. One of the characters, Peeto, has a feminine side, which is ironic because he is portrayed as a rough manly man. The clothes that the men wear are singlets, short shorts and boots. The women wear dresses. They wear clothes that keep them cool, giving the viewers an understanding that the weather in Australia is harsh, dry and

Throughout the process of colonization, the Native people in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Silas Hagerty’s documentary Dakotah 38, and Phillip Noyce’s film Rabbit-Proof Fence, all cope with the on going struggles of being colonized against their will. All three of these sources tell their own, different stories about their same struggles. In both Things Fall Apart and Dakotah 38, the colonizing people create a sense of doubt in the Natives’ cultures; whereas in Rabbit-Proof Fence, the people fight to hold their beliefs by continuing to practice their own traditions.

Australia’s National Film and Sound Registry is a prestigious collection of media which portrays the zeitgeist of a group of people or time, this registry is updated annually with powerful songs which are considered anthems. Archie Roach’s 1990 folk song ‘Took The Children Away’ has recently been selected for consideration as it eloquently draws attention to an important part of Australian history and is undoubtedly a uniting anthem for the Aboriginal people. There are a myriad of poetic devices successfully implemented in this song which serve to intensify meaning and provoke thought. In addition, there are powerful ideologies subtly woven throughout the lyrics which allow listeners to understand and relate to Roach’s words and feelings. Also,

Reports from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003a, 2003b, as cited in Ashman & Elkins, 2009, p. 7) show 25% of the Australian population is currently made up of migrants from around 200 countries. This fact demonstrates Australia, on the whole, has a tolerant and inclusive society. A society can be identified as a collection of people who live together in a relatively ordered community (Ashman & Elkins, 2009, p. 7). It could be said, Australia has one of the most inclusive societies on the planet; however, this was not always the case.

Good Morning/Afternoon, members of the Australian Film Commission. In todays’ seminar, I will delve into the attitudes and beliefs that are present in the typical Australian film to evaluate how they support aspects of the Australian Identity. Using unique cinematics, Kriv Stenders, “Red Dog”, has successfully portrayed the Australian idiom of mateship and the severity of the Australian ‘outback’.

I believe there is no such person as a ‘real’ Australian. The 21st century Australian refers to a very broad range of people. In the past six years, recipients included: an equality advocate, a family violence campaigner, an AFL player and community leader, a media icon, an oscar-winning actor, a social entrepreneur and a mental health expert. All people from different backgrounds, of different ages, genders and races. Even though everyone is unique and there may not seem to be a clear Australian image anymore, I believe that there is still certain qualities that all of these people share, such as

Through research, you can learn that postcolonial discourse is an “academic discipline that analyzes the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism.” It is made up of theories found amongst “history anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, film, political science, architecture, human geography, sociology, Marxist theory, feminism, religious and theological studies, and literature.” An understanding of postcolonial discourse could be what colonized societies handed down to succeeding generations after them that has become significant to their culture.

However, in saying all of this, Australia isn’t entirely a “bad country” as such, there are multiple different ways in which we do act as good global citizens. Australia is very stable and culturally diverse as a nation (in saying this, we are not perfect) with a highly skilled workforce and one of the strongest performing economies in the world. Australia is home to one of the world’s oldest living cultures, with Aboriginal communities established nearly 60,000 years before European settlement. Today, Australia is one of the world’s most most multicultural countries, rich in Indigenous (this has been controversial) and immigrant cultures. Australia is a successful and prosperous nation, ranked second in the United Nations Development Programme’s

The Rabbit-Proof Fence directed by Phillip Noyce, is a story of Aboriginal life in 1931 Western Australia, at the time of the stock market crash in America, and specifically the time of Australia gaining independence from Great Britain and implementing the Aboriginal Act, an act allowing the Protector of the Aborigines to relocate random family members to white camps. The story follows three girls, Molly (14), Gracie (10), and Daisy (8) being relocated by the Protector of the Aborigines, Mr. Neville, aka Mr. Devil. In the camp, Molly notices a rain cloud, inferring she and her family members must escape, as the rain will cover their tracks, something they are familiar with through years of hunting animals by their tracks. The girls escape, and after a long journey of chasing, aid from helpful strangers, and memorable family moments, the girls successfully follow the 990 mile fence to their home, but loose their cousin Gracie on the journey.