Imperialism, also called colonialism, is the political ideology under which the West explained and justified their dominance over the world. It brought many harmful consequences for colonised people. Among the most important:
-Loss of culture and knowledge, because traditional cultures were forced to adopt Western culture and renounce to their own ancestral culture. For instance, forced Aboriginal people to convert to Christianity.
-Loss of language, because colonised people were forced to adopt the imperial language and forgot about their own language
-Land grabbing, because their land became the property of Imperial institutions. Sometimes through new Imperial jurisdictional and administrative divisions (eg. creating States and cities). In other occasions by dividing indigenous land into private property for imperial parties and individuals.
-Dispossession of wealth, since any resources found on a colony, belonged to the empire.
-Destruction of kinship structures. As in the case of the Stolen Generation when children were separated from their parents and sent to faraway places.
-Racism and systematic discrimination, because Imperialism created hierarchies based on race and ethnicity. In those structures, White European people were portrayed as superior to coloured people.
The consequences of Imperialism are still felt today, as it created a powerful structure of domination where non-white people still experience discrimination and exclusion.
The Rabbit-Proof Fence movie shows how these processes of imperialism/colonialism happened during the first half of the XX century in Australia. The movie draws on the Stolen Generation. As such the core theme of the movie is how kinship structures were destroyed. Molly, Gracie and Daisy lived with their families and parents in Western Australia, but the so-called "Protector" of Australian Aborigines decided to sent them thousands of miles away from their families. The three girls escaped and decided to return to their families. But to do it, they need to walk around the fence that is dividing Australia into two parts. A very difficult feat, in which one of them gets re-captured.
The movie also talks about racism, as the "Protector" main reason to send the girls away is that they are "half-caste" (one parent is white and the other aboriginal). They show that under this racist structure, people with mixed background were separated from their families and sent to be re-educated to become servants or labourers. They were never going to have a position of privilege and they were forced to forget their culture, knowledge and language.
