earthreading Books turned into movies, English language, Nonfiction, Oceania

Australia

Follow the rabbit-proof fence by Doris Pilkington [Nugi Garimara]

Follow the rabbit-proof fence by Doris Pilkington was first published in 1996. It is the true story of the author’s mother, Molly Kelly. Molly and her sisters were Australian Aborigines during the 1930’s. This was a dangerous time to be an Aborigine, as the Australian government was actively taking Aborigine children away from their families and placing them in special “boarding schools” in an attempt to integrate them into white Australian life. Molly and her sisters escaped such a school and walked 1000 miles back home to their family, following the “rabbit-proof” fence that the government had set as a way to protect crops from rabbits.

Doris Pilkington was actually born Nugi Garimara. She took the Anglicized name “Doris” while working as a domestic in a white Australian’s household, and became “Pilkington” when she got married. She was born in approximately 1937, and died in 2014. Doris lived to see her most famous book, Follow the rabbit-proof fence, become a movie in 2002, starring Kenneth Branagh. She spent her entire life in Australia.