The Moore River Native Settlement, 1931

Doris PilkingtonÆs Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence focuses on the colonization of the Western desert Mardu people. In Chapter 7, The Moore River Native Settlement, 1931, Pilkington (1996) recounts the removal of her mother and aunts to the Moore River Mission. The colonization of the Mardu, like the colonization of most peoples, involved disenfranchisement. By removing the Mardu to the Moore River Mission, the colonizers successfully disenfranchise the Mardu from society while also providing them a focus of unity. For even though the removal to the Mission represents a step in the creation of an ôinferiorö other by the colonizers, it also provides the Mardu with a focus on survival in the imaginative construct of returning home. The meaning of the Chapter 7 is to illustrate how colonizing a people also serves to unite resistance to colonization. Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence is a story of the defeat of a people at the hands of colonizing forces, but it is also a story that demonstrates the ability of some Mardu to survive. As Brewster (2002) maintains, ôThe figuring of a decolonized, mythic space is an important political and imaginative act providing indigenous people with a sense of autonomy and solidarity and enabling their survival amidst a continuing legacy of dispossession and lossö (2). It is this ideology, reinforced through figurative language and imagery, that provides Chapter 7 with its themes, purpose, a

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ing the Mardu of their own language, they are also robbed of a part of their identity. By taking their identity, the colonizers hope to homogenize them into the dominant culture. We see this in PilkingtonÆs use of figurative language like metaphor and simile. The Mardu girls are deprived of anything resembling comfort in an environment that is more like a concentration camp than a school. There are no sheets or pillow cases except to impress ôspecial visitorsö, there are hard ôcyclone bedsö, there are bars on the windows, and the dormitory ôlooked more like a concentration camp than a residential school for Aboriginal childrenö (Pilkington 1996, 72). One of the easiest ways for colonizers to dominate an indigenous culture is to rip them from their own and basically force them to adopt another. Pilkington uses such figurative language to underscore her themes and ideology expressed in this chapter and throughout the book. That ideology includes the belief that despite the harsh impact of colonization on indigenous people, such a process also imbues many indigenous people with greater resolve, courage, and the will to survive. Cleaving a people of their culture and identity defeats many, but not all. Some retain their identi
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Approximate Word count = 1272
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)