Horny History: Daisy, Gracie, Molly and The Rabbit Fence

It’s real history, as told by some horny dude in my inbox and me

This post contains sensitive content on the genocide of Australian Aboriginal Peoples. Reader discretion is advised.

Auber Octavius Neville, or Neville the Devil was “Chief Protector of Aborigines” between 1915 and 1940. His role was to run assimilation camps. These camps took Aboriginal children from their parents. At the camps the children were taught how to be domestic servants and farm workers and how to assimilate into white culture.

Neville was only worried about the mixed race Aboriginal children. He thought full blooded Aboriginal people would die out naturally. Here’s a quote from him on his view “In my opinion, however, the problem is one which will eventually solve itself. There are a great many full-blooded aborigines in Western Australia living their own natural lives. They are not, for the most part, getting enough food, and they are, in fact, being decimated by their own tribal practices. In my opinion, no matter what we do, they will die out.”

It was with this view he attempted to justify stealing their children. The Stolen Generation.

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(As a reminder I do not know these men. They are messaging a satirical Facebook profile of me as a conservative.)

The policemen were outraged about the girls’ escape. They had spent so much money on this search, and with the search being so public, it was a huge embarrassment for them. They made it clear their feelings of disdain for Aboriginals. The Chief “Protector” of Aborigines wrote, “It’s a pity that those youngsters have gone “native”, but it cannot be helped. They were attractive children, and ought to have been brought in years ago.”

Molly was never free from the people who wanted half-caste children abducted and trained to be white. Years later her own daughter Annabelle was stolen.

She never saw her again.

They are still pests, the rabbits and the people.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized in 2008, but Aboriginal children are still ten times more likely to be taken from their biological families than non-Aboriginal children. The difference is that now they are taken by child protective services. In some places they are much more likely to be taken, such as in New South Wales, where Aboriginal children only are 4.5% of the child population, but are 47% of young people taken from their families.

Aboriginal children who were forcibly separated from their families are twice as likely to have emotional or behavioral problems and use drugs and alcohol. Those struggles continue into adulthood where they are more likely to live in households with excessive drinking and are twice as likely to have been arrested.

Having started the circle of traumatizing children, it’s difficult to know how to end it. Proponents of child services will say children need to be removed now because there are higher rates of dangerous households, but the higher rates are because those adults faced trauma as children, and their parents faced trauma as children, and their grandparents faced trauma as children. Where does it stop?

Additionally, since Aboriginal families are monitored and reported at a higher rate, it could be that the higher rates of dangerous households are only because similar households from white families are not reported.

Aboriginal Australians do not trust child services, and there’s no reason they should. There is hope though. Many are advocating for in home care to help struggling Aboriginal families. As more Aboriginal children are allowed to stay with their families, future generations will flourish. The cycle could finally end.

That can only happen when Aboriginal people are given the right to control their own lives. In 2023 a clear majority of Australians voted to reject Aboriginal people’s rights. The vote was to amend the Australian Constitution “to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing a body called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.” 61% of people voted no.

61% of people seems a lot to overcome, but so did that 1,600 kilometers.

Sources:

Infant removals: The need to address the over-representation of Aboriginal infants and community concerns of another ‘stolen generation’ Melissa O’Donnell, Stephanie Taplin, Rhonda Marriott, Fernando Lima, Fiona J. Stanley

Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence Doris Pilkington (Molly’s daughter)

Why are First Nations children still not coming home from out-of-home care? BJ Newton, Ilan Katz, Kathleen Falster, Kyllie Cripps, Paul Gray

A Fence Too Far? Postcolonial Guilt and the Myth of Distance in Rabbit Proof Fence Deborah Cain

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You should also read:

Horny History: Edith Cowan

Make America Learn History Again: 111 Karen Silkwoods

Horny History: Frances Phoenix