What about keeping to the subject at hand?

Where the European settlement of Australia is concerned, some are Velcro for anything bad and Teflon where any good is concerned.

You wouldn't like to be like that now would you?

That is why evidence is relevant and necessary.

Given the recent settlement of Australia, the renowned diligence of the administrators and their bureaucrats in keeping records and the NON-existence of documentary proof and archeological evidence. 'Hey, someone said there may be some, somewhere' is not good enough The allegations inherent to the novel are very serious indeed. However, 'The Rabbit Proof Fence' remains a jolly good yarn, a fiction, speculative as to what might have been. That is until proof comes forward, which it has not so far despite heaps of research, including school children's and students' compulsory assignments and reports. Full marks to the author and to the makers of the very entertaining movie.

Wanting it to be true is another thing and can easily result in researcher error.

Actually the 'child in danger in the threatening, dangerous Aussie bush' theme is more 'civilised' urban than country or black. -Black excluding the urban indigenous who like the remaining 98% of Australians are frightened by the loss of city lights and conveniences like Woolies.

An argument could be put and it is time that it was, that 'The Rabbit Proof Fence' is a continuation of the fear of the unfamiliar bush that so upset the early 'civilised' Brits and later migrants too, who lob in Sydney and stay near to Centrelink.

The novel is full of the threats and images of the newbie to Oz, back when. Yet as a child I roamed far and wide in the bush, sometimes along with indigenous and other mates but most often without.

Then there is the long, long journey, to test the heroine (they were ahead of their time, representative of the ballsy heroines to come after womens liberation). No karate and no katana though.

An entertaining story, but more deserving of literary criticism than historical or social analysis.

It is not a fictional masterpiece, but ok for a ride on The Ghan. Some tea?

Dearest Foxy,

Exactly ! Charming stories, the best interpretations of the distant past that people could come up with, but completely fanciful. Mind you, perhaps the priests did all right out of spinning those yarns. Thank you, love always.

Hi Steele,

The Fence (or Fences) is/was (are/were) out on (and usually beyond) the limits of wheat country. That's why they were built back in 1907 or so, to keep rabbits out of wheat country. In Upfield's early novel, "Mr Jelly's Business", set on the Fence at Burracoppin (yes, there is such a town) in about 1931-1932, he meticulously describes the environment. By definition, it's usually hard, marginal country. Your quote gives the impression that it is some sort of Garden of Eden (which, by the way, may not have existed: sorry).

'Animals' ? Did the girls have a knife in the fable ? I know, I know, the girls WERE supernatural, they could run down a kangaroo and cut it open with their bare teeth, no worries. They could live on a teaspoon of water a week too. Tough little varmints. The Chinese Long March ? Bunch of wusses.

Windschuttle wrote of 'documentation' - my bet is that none of it relates to any flight, only to the journey down by boat (not by train like in the film: there still isn't a train from the Pilbara to Perth). I'd dearly love to see it :(

Just one verifiable 'fact', please ! I don't like being out here in the cold, I want to be part of the mob, like you fellas :)

Joe

Dear Joe,

Go back and read the Windschuttle link that Steele
gave you. Read Windschuttle's discussion of the
book and the research the author did and the
evidence she found. You obviously have not read
the link.

Dearest Foxy,

Contrary gto ovderwhelming opinion, I'm not really an idiot. Yes, I did read that link. Yes, I'll frepeat:

"I think both Bolt and Windschuttle were being careful and diplomatic by recording that somebody had claimed to have documentation about the girls being taken to Moore River. I don't think that has ever been disputed.

"As for documentation - " ....telegrams, memos and letters sent by police and welfare officials as they pursued the escapees across the state .... " - I'll suspend my belief until some of it is made available, if any of it exists AND actually relates to the 'escape' and not to the taking into care of the girls."

I'm patient. I'll wait for the relevant documentation to be made public.

Meile visada,

Joe

Dear Joe,

I won't bother you any more after this:

http://journey-and-destination.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/follow-rabbit-proof-fence-by-doris.html

http://www.academia.edu/15509561/An_Analysis_of_Doris_Pilkingtons_Follow_the_Rabbit-Proof_Fence