[Deathwatch] Molly Kelly, inspiration for movie, 87

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

This submission appears to be the first from the reader that sent it -
Thanks - Ed.

Aboriginal Woman Who Inspired Movie Dies
Thu Jan 15
	

By JAMIE TARABAY, Associated Press Writer

SYDNEY, Australia - Molly Kelly, who as a child trekked 1,000 miles
across the Australian desert to return to her Aboriginal mother in a
journey that inspired the 2002 movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence," has died.
She was thought to be 87.

Kelly was about 13 when she, her little sister and a cousin made the
nine-week journey with little food and water. When her story came out
decades later, she became a symbol of Aborigine resilience in the face
of mistreatment by Australia's European settlers.

Kelly died Tuesday in the western Australian town of Jigalong while
taking an afternoon nap, news reports said Thursday. Her death was
confirmed by relatives.

In 1931, Kelly was taken from her mother and sent to a government
institution to be trained as a domestic servant along with her sister
and cousin.

Thousands of such forced separations created what are now known as
Australia's "stolen generations." The policy aimed at assimilating
Aborigines into mainstream society began in 1905 and continued until
1971.

The three girls immediately fled the institution. Kelly decided that
since Jigalong was on a rabbit-proof fence ? intended to stop the
spread of the imported animals ? they could follow the fence north to
their home.

They crossed a flooded river, sand dunes, a desert and a salt lake.
They slept in hollowed-out rabbit burrows and ate sweet potatoes and
wild bananas. Nine weeks after they began, they made it home.

"She was a person that was utterly willful, who decided she would not
be dictated to, took on the whole state apparatus and managed to win,"
said Christine Olsen, the screenwriter of the film.

"I remember her as a very impressive woman. When you looked at her you
knew she had a belief in herself, and that first and foremost she would
not bend to anyone."

Kelly's daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara, learned of the story and
wrote it down only after she was reunited with her mother more than 20
years after she also was taken away by authorities.

"She was so very strong, so determined, a no-nonsense kind of person.
Everybody in the community respected her for that," Garimara told the
Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. "Mum's legacy is the calming influence
and quiet dignity of the desert women, and the stolen generations
story. She looked you straight in the eye."

While many members of the "stolen generations" have reunited with their
families, some will never know their real relatives. The Australian
government has refused to formally apologize for the policy, fearing
lawsuits.

Philip Noyce, the film's director, plans to return to Jigalong, on the
edge of the Gibson desert, to pay his respects, the Australian
Associated Press reported Thursday.

Funeral arrangements for Kelly were not immediately released.