[HPFGU-OTChatter] Brittspeak (was Re: Wotcher)

[Shaun Hately]

On 22 Oct 2003 at 22:15, joywitch_m_curmudgeon wrote:

> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, <silverdragon at e...> wrote:
> 
> Have you seen the movie "Rabbit Proof Fence?"  I highly recommend 
> it  -- it's about the Australian policy of removing mixed race 
> children from their families which lasted until the 1970s.  In the 
> film, these children run away and walk thousands of miles back to 
> their homes.  Incredible, moving film.

Unfortunately, it's also rather historically inaccurate.

My grandmother was one of the children taken from her family as part of the 
assimilation policies - so I'm not one of the nutcases who claims it never 
happened. But the historical evidence is, that it was *thankfully* much rarer that 
many people have been lead to believe, and for the majority of its victims, not as 
negative as some people try to present (the fact that it wasn't as negative doesn't 
make it right, of course - and it was largely a matter of luck that it wasn't for 
many).

The film has some serious inaccuracies in its portrayal of what actually happened, 
and personally, as someone who comes from a background where the facts are a 
part of my family's history, I find it very disturbing to see them distorted in the way 
they were in that film. There was no need to distort things - what actually 
happened was bad enough. But please don't think that film is a true story - it 
contains some elements of truth, but it also contains a significant amount of 
fiction.

It's a pretty good film - but please understand that it's not a particularly true story. 
Mollie Craig - one of the women, who was one of the girls the film was about, has 
said that it's not her story anymore.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia