Recently we have been reading “The Rabbits” as well as looking at the pictures that are as powerful as the text itself. This book aims to promote cultural awareness and a sense of caring for the natural world. The story tells of the effects of man on his environment and how changes have taken place over time, in Australia.
I invite you to comment on this book and perhaps answer some of the questions when you write your blog.
What were you thinking about when the story was being read?
Who is telling the story and why are they doing so?
‘… and stole our children.’ What does this mean?
Dear 4MM,
I am so excited to see your blog is up and running. Well done Mrs Masik!
This is one of my favourite books. In fact, I own 3 copies of it! I think it is a very powerful story. I find it interesting that the author has used rabbits to represent the European Settlers and I wonder if anyone can tell me what animal is used to represent the Indigenous Australians? Can you explain why John Marsden chose the animals he did?
I hope you are enjoying your unit and look forward to reading your responses.
Kind regards,
Mrs Bates
Hi Mrs Masik
Your blog is fantastic. I thought that the rabbits are the European settlers and the possums are the Indigenous Australians. I think the Indigenous Australians/possums are telling the story because the story sounds like the First Fleet landing on Austalia. The animal they used to represent Indigenous Austalians are possums.
Thanks,
TD 4MM
Hi Mrs Masik,
I really enjoyed it when you were reading The Rabbits to us. While you were reading it I was thinking about the First Fleet and the Indigenous Australians. It reminded me of how the First Fleet took over Australia and dominated the country. The possums were the Indigenous Australians so I thought that they were telling the story from their point of view. Lastly I think “… and stole our children” meant that the white people thought that the Indigenous Australians didn’t look after their children properly so they took them away from the Indigenous Australians. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog.
Thanks for reading,
HM
Dear Mrs Masik,
We (4MM) have been reading The Rabbits, which I enjoyed so much! When you were reading the story, I felt sorry for the Aborigines as the Europeans were invading the land and were pushing them off the land. I think that the Aborigines were telling the story.’…and stole our children’ means that the Europeans took the Aboriginal children because they thought that the Aborigines didn’t look after them properly.
What did you think about the story?
From K.C
Dear 4MM; Mrs Masik,
I really enjoyed reading the rabbits. It’s such a powerful story. It left me thinking about how cruel we were to the Aborigines and how we made a beautiful green land into a disgusting polluted world. The Aborigines (possums) told the story from their point of view. If it was the Europeans, they would tell us a whole different story of the Aborigines doing the wrong thing and that they were doing the right thing. When Mrs Masik read ‘The Rabbits’, I felt bad for what we did, and sorry for the Aborigines and how much they went through.
‘…and stole our children ‘means that the Europeans took the Aboriginal children away from their parents, because they thought they were doing the wrong thing, not dressing them and living in the bush, not in houses. Can anyone tell me why the Europeans destroyed a beautiful place and turned it into a polluted city?
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog.
Thanks C.S
Dear Mrs Masik,
When you were reading The Rabbits it made me think about all of those poor Aboriginal families that had children taken away from them. “…..and stole our children” means that the Rabbits took away the children and gave them to white people. Also I think that the animals, representing the Aboriginies in the story, are possums. Thirdly, I think that the person who wrote the story chose ‘rabbits’ to represent the white people because rabbits spread around very easily and are very destructive.
What was your favourite part of the story?
From N.D
Hi 4MM,
4MM has been reading a book called”The Rabbits.” It is about how the white settlers took the Indigenous Aboriginal land in 1788.The Rabbits are the White Settlers and the possums are the Aboriginals.I think “…and stole our children…”means when the White Settlers took the Aboriginal children away from the parents because they thought that the Aborigines did not know how to raise them correctly.
What do you think it means?
From S.R.
Dear Mrs Masik
(Mrs Masik I am sorry about the first one I sent, I accidentally pressed enter!) I really enjoyed reading the book called ‘The Rabbits’. It was interesting. I loved the illustrations and I think that Shaun Tan did a great job with them. When you were reading I was thinking of the First Fleet and when they invaded the Indigenous people. “…and stole our children” means that the rabbits (white men) stole their children. White man thought that they would be doing a better job raising the children. The story was told by the Indigenous people.
Thank you for reading my post.
Regards R.V
Dear Mrs Masik,
We have been reading the Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan. I really enjoyed the book because it made me think about how the Aboriginal people were treated. I felt that the European settlers were very mean to kick the Aboriginal people out of their land. ‘…and stole our children.’ This means that the European settlers stole the Aboriginal children. They told the children that their parents didn’t want them, but what really happened was that the European settlers stole them. The animals that represented the Aborigines were possums. The white people were represented as rabbits. I think the author chose rabbits to represent the white people because rabbits are hard to get rid of and they spread very quickly. That was exactly what the white people were doing. They were also cutting down trees to build houses.
Can anyone tell me what they would do if their child was taken away?
From K.A
Dear Mrs Masik
I enjoyed reading the book on the “Rabbits” because it made me feel sad that the British settlers took over the Aborigines land. I believe the Aborigines were telling the story about the Rabbits.”…and stole our children” means that the British settlers took away the Aboriginal children because they believed that Aborigines were not raising them correctly because the Aboriginal children didn’t live in homes or wore clothes.
Thank you for reading my blog.
From V.G.
Hi Mrs Masik,
I have really enjoyed reading ‘The Rabbits’ as it is a very powerful story which shows from the Indigenous Australians perspective how they felt. While I was listening to the story I was thinking about how the early settlers invaded Australia and the impact this had on the Indigenous Australians. I think that ‘…and stole our children’ means how the white people took away the Aboriginal children and brought them up the white people’s way. I think this was sad and wrong as those children would have missed out on growing up within their culture. Why do you think the illustrator used possums to represent the Indigenous Australians and rabbits as the white settlers?
From A.J
Hi Mrs Masik,
4mm have been reading the book the “Rabbits”. It was about the First Fleet and how white man invaded the Aborginies. I was thinking that the rabbits were the white people and the possum were the Aborginies. I think they represented white people as rabbits because white man breeds fast and it is like the rabbbits multiplying. Now there was bit of the story that said “…and stole our children…” White man thought that the Aboriginies weren’t looking after them correctly so they took them for white man to raise them the proper way.
How would you feel if you got taken from your mother?
Regards C.G
Hi Mrs Masik and 4MM,
I really enjoyed when you read ‘The Rabbits’ to us because it made me think about how cruelly we took the land from the rightful owners of Australia, the Aboriginal people. It also made me think about why we think we are WAY more successful than the Aboriginal people when we have been living on this land for 200 years and ruined the environment when the Aboriginal people were living on the land for over 70,000 years.
In the text, the possums, which are the Aboriginal people, are telling the story because they have the true story of the First Fleet arrival.
“…And stole our children” means that the rabbits, which are the Europeans, took the Aboriginal children away from the parents because they thought they could look after them better than the parents.
I really liked that John Marsden made the Europeans, rabbits because they have a rapid population growth and a very high destruction capability.
What do you think about think about this marvellous book?
Regards, N.M.
Dear Mrs Masik,
I really enjoyed the book ‘The Rabbits’. When you were reading the book I was thinking about how cruel the white men who took over a beautiful landscape which belonged to the Indigenous Australians.
I think that Shaun Tan used possums for the Indigenous Australians because possums were native to Australia and I also think he used rabbits for the white settlers because they spread quickly.
‘…and stole our children’ means that the rabbits (white men) took away the possums (Indigenous Australians) children because they thought that the Aborigines didn’t take care of them correctly.
When I mean “correctly”, I mean that the Australians didn’t put clothes on the babies.
I think that the possums told the story, because in the story it had a picture drawn with Aborigines chasing after the babies to get them back.
How would you feel if you were taken away from your family or your country over taken by different people and you were there first?
Hope you liked my post.
Regards M.P.
Dear 4MM and Mrs Masik,
We’ve been reading the book, “The Rabbits”. I was thinking about how the white men did many horrible things to the Aborigines. I think that the Aborigines (possums) were telling the story. It couldn’t have been the white men (rabbits) because the Aborigines were talking about them. “…and stole our children” means that the white men took the Aboriginal children away from their mothers because they thought that they couldn’t look after their children in the correct way.
What do you think this means?
Thanks for reading my blog.
Regards, A.Ch
Dear 4MM and Mrs. Masik,
We (4MM) have been reading “The Rabbits”. While you were reading, I thought how cruel it was to take the babies from the Aborigines. Their mother would chase the truck but will never make it because she is running on bare foot and the truck is too fast.
The possums in the story are the Aborigines and the white men are the rabbits. The author used rabbits because they spread quickly and they damage lots of things especially on farms.
“…and stole our children” means that the white men took the baby away from the mothers because they thought the Aborigines didn’t take care of them properly because the Aboriginies didn’t put clothes on the baby. They would just take the baby without asking. The mother would chase the truck but won’t get the baby back. The white men would just leave her.
The white men used trucks because anything that got in the way, the white men would just hit them.
What do you think it means?
Thanks for reading my blog.
Regards G.X.