Molly Kelly (née Craig, died January 2004) was an Australian Martu Aboriginal woman, known for her escape from the

Moore River Native Settlement The Moore River Native Settlement was the name of the now defunct Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal settlement and internment camp located north of Perth and west of Mogumber, Western Australia, Mogumber in Western Australia, near the Source ...

in 1931 and subsequent trek home with her half-sister Daisy Kadibil (née Burungu) and cousin Gracie Cross (née Fields). She was a member of the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Gover ...

, who were part-white, part-Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families by the Australian government. Her story was the inspiration for the book '' Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'' and the film ''

Rabbit-Proof Fence The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from ...

''.

Early life

Molly Craig was born in

Jigalong Jigalong is a remote Aboriginal community of approximately 333 people located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The traditional owners of the land are the Martu people. Location Jigalong is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia ...

, Western Australia, . Her mother, Maude, was a Martu Aboriginal woman, and her father was Thomas Craig, a white Australian fence inspector. The

Martu people The ''Martu'' (Mardu) are a grouping of several Aboriginal Australian peoples in the Western Desert cultural bloc. Name The Martu people were originally speakers of various Wati languages in the Western Desert dialect continuum whose identit ...

(Mardudjara) had moved from the nearby Sandy Desert. Jigalong was established in the far north west of Australia in 1907, as the location for a maintenance and rations store for workmen constructing the

rabbit-proof fence The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from ...

. The rabbit-proof fence is a

pest-exclusion fence 280px, Xcluder pest-exclusion fence around the perimeter of Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari in New Zealand A pest-exclusion fence is a barrier that is built to exclude certain types of animal pests from an enclosure. This may be to protect p ...

constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s and other agricultural pests, from the east, out of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

n pastoral areas. In the first part of the 20th century, children of mixed Indigenous and white parentage were frequently removed from their families and placed in institutions or with white families as domestic servants. In 1931, Molly (probably 14), her half-sister Daisy Kadibil (aged about 8) and her cousin Gracie (aged about 11) were taken from their families and transported over to the

, north of Perth. The next day, the three girls escaped on foot, and walked to find the rabbit-proof fence and then follow it north back to Jigalong. Craig piggy-backed the younger girls in turn. The journey was described in the book '' Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'' by Molly's daughter Doris Pilkington Garimara. In 2002, the book was made into a film, ''

'', directed by

Phillip Noyce Phillip Roger Noyce (born 29 April 1950) is an Australian film and television director. Since 1977, he has directed over 19 feature films in various genres, including historical drama ('' Newsfront'', '' Rabbit-Proof Fence'', '' The Quiet Amer ...

Later life

Craig married Toby Kelly, an Aboriginal stockman, and the couple worked on Balfour Downs station. She gave birth to her first daughter, Nugi Garimara (Doris), in 1936 under a mulga tree. In 1937, her second daughter Annabelle was born. Molly Kelly was taken to the Moore River settlement again in 1940 with her daughters. She ran away in 1941, carrying 18-month-old Annabelle. She left Doris (4) with a relative. In 1943, Annabelle (Anna Wyld) was taken away from Kelly and told she was an orphan. She would never see her mother again, although they were able to exchange gifts before Kelly's death. Doris was reunited with her mother 21 years later which led to her internationally acclaimed and award-winning trilogy, ''Caprice, A Stockman's Daughter'', (UQP, 1991), '' Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'', (UQP, 1996), and ''Under the Wintamarra Tree'', (UQP, 2002). The children's edition of ''Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'' was ''Home to Mother'', (UQP, 2006). Kelly died in her sleep in January 2004, at Jigalong, Western Australia, at about 86–87 years old.

Bibliography

* ''Caprice, A Stockman's Daughter'', (UQP, 1991) * '' Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence'', (UQP, 1996) * ''Under the Wintamarra Tree'', (UQP, 2002) * ''Home to Mother'', (UQP, 2006)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Molly 2004 deaths Indigenous Australians from Western Australia