We read and viewed “The Rabbit Proof Fence” a true autobiographical story by Doris Pilkington Garimara, about mixed race Aboriginal children with one  forcibly sent to institutions to be trained to integrate into the middle-class by working in domestic service. Three young friends ran away, and found the rabbit proof fence. By following it, they walked an incredible, arduous journey of over 2400km to get home to Jigalong.

Mixed race, or as we would now say bicultural, children were taken from their families right up until 1970. It was not until 2008 that the Australian government apologized to the children that were called the “Stolen Generations.”

We researched the history of Aboriginal art. Looking at the symbolism we designed our pictures, in the “Dreamtime” style. We created our own dot pictures in the traditional way of sitting in groups and working together. We used acrylic paint on canvas.

We were very lucky to have a real Australian from FIS, Mrs. Rowley, to listen to our stories and judge our competition. She was either very polite or really loved our paintings. She said the vibrant colours even made her homesick. 

Teachers Mrs Desgouttes and Miss Jourdan