Linda C. and the Terrors of the Rabbit Proof Fence

Abstract

Something is frightening Linda C. Linda C. is a non-Indigenous studentteacher at an Australian university. The following episodes give some clues as to what this thing might be — and why we should care. In the 1920s near Deniliquin in rural New South Wales Margaret Tucker was stolen from her mother by a policeman who came to take Margaret and several other children while they were at school. The head master’s wife tried to delay their theft by insisting that they eat before their journey, thus giving Margaret’s aproned mother time to run the one and a half mile distance from her home. She arrived in time and told the policeman that she would not allow him to take her daughter. The policeman patted the pouch on his belt and said if she refused he would have to use its contents. Margaret, fearing he would shoot her mother, said she would go willingly. Margaret heard years later that her mother had wandered off into the long grass after she left and had cried for days. In recounting the story in her book, 'If Everyone Cared', Margaret Tucker wrote that the policeman was probably only doing his duty.