如果政府绑架了你的女儿你会怎么办？在1905年至1971年期间的澳大利亚，这种事情每个星期都会发生。那些混血土著孩子被迫永远离开了他们在内陆的家乡，被送到1500英里以外，培训成白人家庭的仆人。《末路小狂花》讲述了三个年女孩的真实故事，她们拒绝接受命运的安排，沿着横穿澳大利亚大陆的防兔篱笆，在官方的全力追捕下，踏上了一条前所末有的逃亡之路。

这是一个真实的故事，故事发生在1931年的澳大利亚西部。贯穿澳大利亚南北全境有一条防兔篱笆，用来拦挡兔子，保护篱笆另一边的牧场。沿着这个篱笆在吉布森(Gibson)最偏远的吉加朗(Jigalong)一个小型停车场里住着3位活泼的土著女孩，14岁的莫利(Molly，埃弗林恩-桑普饰，Everlyn Sampi)，8岁的妹妹戴西(Daisy，蒂亚纳-桑斯伯里饰，Tianna Sansbury)，以及她们10岁的表妹格雷西(Gracie，劳拉-莫纳汉饰，Laura Monaghan)。格雷西与莫利和戴西的母亲莫德(Maude，宁加莉-劳福德饰，Ningali Lawford)、祖母弗琳达(Frinda，米娅恩-劳福德饰，Myarn Lawford)，以及自己的母亲莉莉(Lily，舍伊尔-卡特饰，Sheryl Carter)一起过着纯朴的生活。这些女孩的白人父亲都是造篱笆栏的工人，他们已经往下造篱笆去了。现在她们与澳大利亚白人的唯一联系就是每周在吉加朗停车场发东西。

Introduction

Map

1 The First Military Post

2 The Swan River Colony

3 The Decline of Aboriginal Society

4 From the Deserts They Came

5 Jigalong, 1907-1931

6 The Journey South

7 The Moore River Native Settlement, 1931

8 The Escape

9 What Happened to Them? Where are They Now?

Glossary

References

The First Military Post

WAS STILL very cool in the early summer morning; the fresh, clean air he breathed into his lungs felt good. He stood up and stretched his arms above his head then dropped them to his side. He was the first to rise. This was not unusual, Kundilla always woke before anyone else and this morning was no different from any other. He looked slowly around at the sleeping forms covered by warm,animal-skin blankets, lying outside their shelters made from branches and slabs of bark. There was no shortage of trees and shrubs around here, that is why this spot was chosen for the winter camp. Kundilla walked silently to perform his early morning rituals, away from the camp,which was situated in a clearing a hundred metres from the river. On his return he stopped along the banks of the river to pull up the fish traps he had set the previous evening.How peaceful it was, with the sounds of birds twittering high above, amid the leafy branches of the giant river gums, and the occasional splash of the fish in the river. Dawn was his favourite time of day. As the sun rose he could meditate and reflect on the events of the past few days but, more importantly, he could plan future activities without interruptionand distraction.

Little did he know that soon devastation and desolation would shatter this tranquil environment; that this pristine forest would echo the anguished cries and the ceaseless weeping of thousands of people -- his people -- as they were tormented by foreigners and driven off their land.

His long, wavy, grey hair and thick white beard heightened his dignified appearance as he approached the camp carrying two fish traps filled with marrons and gilgies for his family's breakfast. He had power and strength which commanded respect.

Kundilla was satisfied with the results of yesterday's an nual scrub firing. This was a special time on the seasonal calendar when his family clans from far around would gather on their territory to set fire to areas of dense under growth to flush out any game, such as kangaroos and wallabies, that might be sheltering there. All the men waited in strategic places around the scrub as the animals dashed out in panic. Then they either speared or clubbed them to death. The animal pelts were made into warm cloaks as protection against the bitterly cold winter winds of the south west. The smaller skins were made into skin bags with fur lining the inside to be used for carrying babies and as all-purpose bags.

Kundilla had two wives, the senior wife, Ngingana, had already lit the fire to cook the first meal of the day when he returned. She raked the coals and ashes to one side then dropped the marrons and gilgies on them. When they were cooked she pulled them out with a long green stick and laid them on the gum leaves. As she dusted the ashes from the food she called for everyone to come and eat. This meal was washed down with the cool water drawn from the soak under the thick bullrushes that grew along the river bank.Kundilla's second wife Mardina was breastfeeding their youngest child, Jalda.

Her two teenage sons, Wandani and Binmu, would soon be taken away to join several others who will leave the camp as boys to go through the Law and return as men. She glanced proudly at her sons and felt a pang of sadness. To her theywere still boys, surely one more summer wouldn't make any difference. She was only their mother, the tribal elders had already made their decision and there was nothing she could do to change it. Mardina wiped the tears from her eyes then raised her head and continued to feed babyJalda.

Kundilla's three married sons and their families were camped to the fight of them. Others camped nearby, forming a semicircle. There were about sixty people in the group and for the hunters and fishermen this was the place to be right now. Some had travelled for many days from outlying areas to join this group while the food supply was plentiful here. Kundilla had planned to move soon to the mouth of the river so that he and his family could feast on crayfish,crabs, seals and shellfish. They all looked forward to this annual trip to the coast.

After breakfast, Kundilla sat under the shade of a large eucalypt away from the camp and began checking his spears and fishing traps in preparation for the coastal trip. Behind him the sounds of normal, everyday camp life continued: mothers and grandmothers yelling orders to their offspring, children playing games, some fighting and squabbling, others delightedly splashing and diving in the pool.As he reached for the sharpening stone to hone a spear, an ominous sound reverberated through the forest. The peace and tranquility was shattered by a loud boom. Alarmed and frightened, the women snatched up their babies and tod dlers and ran to the men.

"What was that?" the people asked their leader. Even the flocks of birds were squawking loudly as they sought refuge in the high canopy of the forest.

"I don't know what that noise was or where it came from," Kundilla replied. "But we will go down and find out，”he assured them．He called all the adult men to him and they gathered by a tea-tree clump．

"They’re back．They’ve come to take away our women．"he said in a voice filled’vith passion．anxiety and fear．

"Yes，but what can we do to stop them?”asked Bunyun，his eldest son．“YoU know what happened the last time they came ashore．"

The men nodded as they recalled the incident；it hap pened to Bunyun’S Uncle Tumi and other members of his family who usually camped further along the beach，near the cove．They were shot by the white raiders when they tried to stop them from kidnapping the women．The family were still mournin~their dead．

Kundilla and his family had heard how their brothers and uncles were killed bY ruthless white pirates，desperados and escaped convicts．Those cruel and murderous men came ashore and stole Aboriginal women and kept them on board their ships aS sexual slaves．then murdered them and tossed their bodies into the ocean when their services were no longer required．These renegades made up the crews ofthe American whaling ships who hunted for whales and seals on the southern coast of Western Australia．A1though the brave Nyungar warriors fought gallantly and fearlessly,thev were no match for the evil white invaders with their muskets．swords and pistols．

When the invaders encountered the Nyungar people 0f the Great Southern region，they were pleased to find friendly,hospitable people．At first，the Aboriginal men welcomed the sealers and whalers．They were very interested in the boats in which the crew had rowed ashore．Through sign language they managed to indicate that they were impressed with the timber structure and desiffn ofthe boas．These unsuspecting men were invited to visit the beach camp of the white crew as a gesture of friendship and goodwill；the women stayed behind，out of sight of the strangers.P1-4

The trek back home toJigalong in the northwest of Western Australia from the Moore River Native Settlement just north of Perth was not only a historical event, it was also one of the most incredible feats imaginable, undertaken by three Aboriginal girls in the 1930s.

The two surviving members of the trio, my mother and her sister Daisy, are now in their late sixties and seventies and are anxious for their story to be published before they die. They refer to their sister Grace in the interviews simply as "the sister we lose 'em in Geraldton" or "your Aunty". This is the custom in traditional Aboriginal communities where the name of a person is never mentioned after their death. Anyone with the same name is referred to as gurn manu which means "what's his name", or have Nguberu substituted for their given names. For example, Adam Thomas would be addressed as Nguberu Thomas following the death of another man named Adam.

The task of reconstructing the trek home from the settlement has been both an exhausting and an interesting experience. One needed to have a vivid imagination, the patience of many saints and the determination to succeed despite the odds. Molly, Daisy and Gracie were outside familiar territory so I found it necessary to become a tenyearold girl again in order to draw on my own childhood memories of the countryside surrounding the settlement.In my mind I walked the same paths and called on my skills as a writer to describe the scenery and how it looked through their eyes. By combining my imagination and the information from records of geographical and botanical explorations undertaken in the area during the early 1900s and later, I was able to build a clearer picture of the vegetation and landscape through which the girls trekked.

There were so many other factors that had to be taken into consideration when telling their story. First, how was I going to reconstruct a landscape which had either changed considerably or disappeared completely. At the time of the event much of the terrain was uncleared virgin bush, a strange, scary wilderness to these three girls who came from the desert regions of Western Australia. In addition to this,there were no major highways linking the towns that were scattered in the country northeast of Perth. Molly, Gracie and Daisy passed through parts of the country that changed every 15 or 20 kilometres, with each change of scenery bringing more tension as food and sustenance became harder to procure. In my mind I actually walked beside them, from the moment they left the girls' dormitory at the settlement all the way home toJigalong.

Age presented no problem for my mother and aunty.Their minds were sharp and they had no difficulty recounting their experiences along the way, however, I realise that consideration must be given to the time lapse since they were young at the time, and to allow for patches of dimmed memories and sketchy reflections. Another fact I completely overlooked until the interviews began was their illiteracy. This, combined with their lack of numeracy skills,made it impossible to establish measurements accurately.Numbers, dates, in fact mathematics of any kind, have little or no relevance in our traditional Aboriginal society. Nature was their social calendar, everything was measured byevents and incidents affected by seasonal changes.example, summer is pink-eye time when eye problems brought on by the heat, dust and flies flare up. This was the period when station workers took their annual holidays.Pink-eye time was the common term used for weekends and days off from normal duties on the stations in the Pilbara region. The winter or rainy season is yalta or galyu time.Similarly the days of the week were named according to which domestic duties were carried out on: Monday was referred to as washing day, Tuesday was ironing day,Wednesday was mending day, and so on.

Time was also marked by activities of cultural and ceremonial significance. For example, the people in Jigalong and the Gibson Desert regions use a specific event or incident when telling stories. Their stories, whether they be oral history or anecdotes, do not begin in the same way as Western stories: "I remember clearly it was during the Christmas holidays in 1968 when ...", and so on. Rather the speaker will remind the listeners that, "It was galyu time.Galyu everywhere, all the roads were cut off..." Or, "It was Ngulungga time when we had that big meeting". The listeners know that this was the time when traditional rites and rituals were performed. So in these communities time is based on practical events, incidents and seasons.

When recounting the long walk home, Aunty Daisy mentioned how they chased emu chicks at the Nannine railway siding south of Meekatharra. She described how the chicks were striped in black and white. By combining research and personal observation I was able to establish that the chicks must have been a certain age and so it would have beeneither late August or September.  Seasonal time and not numbers is important in recounting this journey. Consistent with Aboriginal storytelling style, seasonal time and the features of the natural environment are more important to recounting this journey than are the western notions of time and distance. I have though worked to synthesise these different forms of knowledge to give readers the fullest insight into this historic journey.

This journey took place when there were no highways or sealed roads criss-crossing the continent, only gravel roads or more often, dirt tracks and trails made by carts, sulkies and light, early model cars. The girls avoided these routes,especially where the rabbit-proof fence came near towns such as Sandstone. Walking along the tracks and trails, the girls knew that they would have been too exposed to the white population and their whereabouts would have been immediately reported to the local police.

Molly, Gracie and Daisy came from a remote community in the north-west of Western Australia where the white population tended to stick tightly together, and maintained contact by pedal wireless, telephone and mail. Aware of this the girls aimed to pass by silently and swiftly without being detected and to reach home as fast as they could.

Books

Biskup, E, 1973, Not Slaves: Not Citizens, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.

Crowley, EK. and de Gaffs, B.K., A Short History of Western Australia, Melbourne and Sydney.

Hughes, R., 1988, The Fatal Shore, Pan Books, London.

Moore, G.E, Diary ofTen Years of an Early Settler in Western Australia,University of Western Australia Press, Perth.

Rowley, C.D., 1970, The Destruction of Aboriginal Society, Australian

National University Press, Canberra.—— 1971, Outcasts in White Australia, Australian National

University Press, Canberra.——1971, The Remote Aborigines, Australian National UniversityPress, Canberra.

Stone, S.N., 1974, Aborigines in White Australia, Griffen Press,Adelaide.Tonkinson, R., 1974, The Jigalong Mob: Aboriginal Victors of The

Desert Crusade, Benjamin/Collins, California.——1978, The Mardudjara Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australia's Desert, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Sydney.Government Records and Newspapers

Department of Family and Children's Services Original Police File Number 5979/31

Department of Native Affairs File Numbers 173/30; 175/30;345/36

Illustrated Melbourne Post 20 August, 1861

West Australian 11 August, 1931