AustLit logo

AustLit

Christine Olsen Christine Olsen i(A64759 works by)
Born: Established:
c
New Zealand,
c
Pacific Region,
;
Gender: Female
Arrived in Australia: 1985
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

Olsen grew up in a small country town in New Zealand and was educated there. She worked as a radio producer for Radio Television Hong Kong until 1985. Olsen then came to Australia where she worked in documentary film. She produced the three-part television series Riding the Tiger, and the documentary Hephzibah which won the AFI Best Documentary and the Silver Wolf Award for Best Documentary in Amsterdam. Olsen has been living in Sydney.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Rabbit-Proof Fence ( dir. Phillip Noyce ) Australia : Rumbalara Films Olsen Levy Productions , 2002 Z919523 2002 single work film/TV (taught in 15 units)

Based on real life events that occurred in 1931, Rabbit-Proof Fence is the story of three mixed-race Aboriginal children who are forcibly abducted from their mothers by the Western Australian government. Molly (aged fourteen), her sister Daisy (aged eight), and their cousin Gracie (aged ten) are taken from their homes at Jigalong, situated in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, at the orders of the Protector of Aborigines, A.O. Neville, and sent to an institution at Moore River to be educated and trained as domestic servants. After a few days, Molly leads the other two girls in an escape. What ensues is an epic journey that tests the girls' will to survive and their hope of finding the rabbit-proof fence to guide them home.

Although they are pursued by the institution's Aboriginal tracker and the police, Molly knows enough about bush craft to help them hide their tracks. They head east in search of the world's longest fence - built to keep rabbits out - because Molly knows that this will lead them back to Jigalong. Over the course of nine weeks, the girls walk almost 2,400 kilometres before Gracie is captured attempting to catch a train. Molly and Daisy avoid capture but eventually collapse from exhaustion on the saltpans not far from Jigalong. When they wake, they see the spirit bird, an eagle, flying overhead. Its significance gives the girls the extra energy they need and they are able to make it back to their home.

2002 winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Screenplay - Adapted Best Screenplay - Adapated
2001 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Script Writing Award
2001 winner Queensland Premier's Literary Awards Best Film or Television Script
2002 Nominated Australian Film Institute Awards Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Source
Last amended 3 Apr 2007 16:43:33
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X