Saw Rabbit Proof Fence at the movies and I cried from beginning to end. I wonder how many non-Aboriginal Australians really are Aboriginal but will never know or even guess because of the kidnapping policies and practices of the Australian government until the 1970s. There must be many thousands of Australians who have Aboriginal heritage but don't know. I am wondering again about my own origins, about my grandfather, but I know that even if I find the genetic test to prove one way or another and he is Aboriginal, it's only the beginning of many depressing questions. Maybe it's easier not to know.
I have met many Aboriginal people who know nothing of their heritage and are trying to piece it together now. People who look 'white' and people who look 'full-blood' who have lost their languages and whole systems of knowledge, who somewhere along the way were stolen from their people and now all they know is that they are Aboriginal and sometimes they know what mob they came from. But nothing more. And there is so much more to know about when it comes to family histories and a sense of belonging.