How does The Rabbits, by Shaun Tan and John Marsden, convey insights about the ‘Aboriginal Experience’? In your response, select one or two pages to support your ideas. 700 or 800 words
Throughout “The Rabbits” by Shaun Tan and John Marsden, various insights are conveyed regarding the mistreatment of Aboriginal’s by the white colonies and overwhelming force and power of the colonisers and the change and destruction of land. The book depicts these key historical occurrences by using numerous visual and literary techniques.
Despite the white colonies first being kind and respectful, this soon changed as their numbers and needs grew. The Aboriginal’s had different ideals than the white colonisers, thus, conflict occurred. The language barrier was an impact so both had issues trying to understand one another. When the fights developed, the white colonisers would win due to their advanced weaponry and being industrialised. This is displayed in double page 9, where the land is wrapped in flags from the colonisers, while the Aboriginals are down the bottom of the page with chains around their necks. This is a representation of how the Aboriginals were belittled and viewed below the white colonisers, as well as depicting their mistreatment. With the Aboriginals being placed in the land, it could be symbolic of the numbers of Aboriginals who died. The heavy amount of flags also symbolises the number and force the colonisers carried. Not only did they have the weapons, they vastly outnumbered the Aboriginals. This page of the book is relatively dark and has symbols covering majority of the page. The dark hues of greys and blacks symbolise grief and loss, which could be of the Aboriginals land, culture and people. Due to the salient image being a rip in the page having the Aboriginals locked up in chains while a coloniser is standing guard, an understanding is reached of how vulnerable the Aboriginals were up until then. This page exhibits how their freedom was stolen from them. Additionally, on page 10, these large machines are illustrated to be eating up the land while smaller animals were driven away, once more depicting the amount of force the colonisers carried with them.
The destruction and changing of the land held major impacts for Aboriginals. Due to animals being driven away, and land being eaten up by large buildings, finding food became difficult. A lot of flora was destroyed and replaced with buildings for civilisation, as presented on page 12 of the book.