Long Walk Home (2002)
15KLong Walk Home: Directed by Phillip Noyce. With Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, David Gulpilil. In 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback.
“Official policy between 1910 and 1970 in Australia allowed half-caste Aborigine children to be forcibly removed from their families and incarcerated for their ownu0026#39; good in training schools where their were educated to become fitting servants for white families. This institutionalised eugenics, still recent enough to be remembered by its victims, is still a controversial issue in Australia where the PM John Howard refuses to give an official apology. The film has been doing very well in Australia. The story follows three such girls who are forcibly re-located but escape, and follow the rabbit-proof fenceu0026#39; on a 1500 mile journey back home. The title itself seems to echo not only the yellow brick road of the Wizard of Oz (another journey to reclaim oneu0026#39;s wholeness) but the fence that was erected to contain animals which is just how the Aborigine children are treated, albeit with the best intentions. The story was adapted from a book by the daughter of the youngest surviving half-cast Aborigine portrayed in the film the actual child actors had mostly never seen a motion picture before let alone acted in one.”
