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5 out of 5 stars. I watched this movie years ago and also read the book it’s based on. It deserves to be required viewing in every history course, because it tells the story of a horrific tragedy inflicted on people simply for having a different skin color, culture, and language. It is a reminder of what should never be repeated—yet here we are in 2025, still confronting echoes of the same injustices.
The film, Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), portrays children who were kidnapped and stolen from their families by a racist, hateful, and cruel system. While this story is set in Australia, the same atrocities were happening in North America. In the united states, Native children were taken from their families and forced into government-run boarding schools. The goal was clear: to erase their identity, language, and culture. Among Native people, we call this the “boarding school era.”
This history is not abstract to me—it runs through my own bloodline. My grandmother was forced into one of these schools. She was beaten for speaking our Lakota language, had her hair cut off, and endured physical and emotional abuse that scarred her for life. That trauma didn’t end with her; it carried into my mother’s life, and into mine.
So when people dismiss this movie for “poor acting” or other trivial reasons, I urge them to step back and recognize its deeper significance. This film is not just entertainment—it is testimony. It is a reminder of the dehumanization and atrocities that scarred generations, and a warning of what happens when hatred, racism, and cultural genocide are allowed to go unchecked.