Featured Blogger for the Whale Rider

The movie Whale Rider directed by Niki Caro, shows the conflict that arises between traditions versus modernism, young versus old and men versus women.  The historical attributes of the Maori culture contributes greatly to these conflicts.   You have two main characters in this film; Paikea, also known as Pia, who is a young Maori girl and Koro, Maori tribe leader and Pia’s grandfather.

According to this tribes legend their existence can be traced back a thousand years to a single ancestor named Paikea.  It is believed that he was able to escape death by riding on the back of a whale.  It was also believed that the first born males of the tribe chiefs were a direct descendant of the original Paikea.  This would also mean that this first born male would become the new leader of the tribe.  Since it was Koro’s oldest son, Porourangi whose wife and son died, there was no longer a line of leadership.  Koro wants his son to toughen up and get over it, find a new wife and have a son.  Instead, Porourangi leaves for Germany, leaving Pia with her grandparents.

At first, Koro was angry that his grandson had died and didn’t even acknowledge his granddaughter.  However, as timed passed, you do see that love has bloomed between Koro and his granddaughter.  This love does get challenged when Pia expresses an interest in learning more about the culture, traditions and indicates that she believes she can be the next leader.  Koro can not accept this since she is a girl.  Tradition does not allow females to take on the leadership role for the tribe therefore he gets upset at his granddaughter for even thinking this.

Koro decides to recruit the young boys in the village and train them in the old ways in hopes of finding a new leader.  It all comes down to a boat ride in which Koro throws out his whale bone into the ocean and which ever of the boys returns with it will prove that he is the new leader.  When none of them come back with it Koro feels as if he is a failure in finding a new leader for his people.  He also starts to place blame on Pia for this.

***SPOILER ALERT***TURN BACK NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET***

One evening there is a special program in place that deals a lot with the music and history of the people of the village.  Pia asks her grandfather to come.  As a surprise to everyone, Pia wins an award for a speech about her grandfather and they love and challenges they have.  In this speech she talks about how it might be better to share the traditions with all regardless of their gender so all can carry the burdens and triumphs.  Koro misses this because as he was leaving, he noticed that there was a large whale beached on the shore near his house.  He goes out to investigate only to see more.

Eventually the whole village learns of what happens.  They all end up on at the beach trying to help get the whales back into the ocean.  Koro is working with the biggest whale on the beach.  Pia comes over to try to help but he yells at her not to touch.  He blames her for this happening.  Soon everyone leaves the big whale but Pia stays behind.  She climbs on the whale and is able to get it to move back out into the ocean.  Just than, her grandmother sees this.  She starts to call out for her.  The grandmother than takes the whale bone that Pia retrieved and gives it back to Koro advising him that Pia is the one who got it.  He now realizes that Pia is the intended leader and her gender does not matter.

 

What I loved about this movie is that the traditions and the importance of the men is expressed in a very typical way; men are strong, born leaders – no way a women could do what they do.  In reality, it is Pia who shows she has so much more strength then any of the men in her village.  Koro’s love was something Pia had to fight so hard to get starting from when she was a baby.  By challenging her grandfather, she jeopardized all that time spent building that loving relationship.

I also love how all the older women, especially Pia’s grandmother were essentially rebels.  They allowed the men think that they were in charge but in all reality, the women were the ones in charge.  They were the backbones of the families and the village.  They allowed the men to be in charge of the traditions but the women were the ones teaching life lessons that allowed the tribe to survive.  With out them it is possible that the tribe would have vanished.  And make no mistake of it, when Pia’s grandmother spoke, Koro and Pia listened.  She could be very hard and strict but also be the warm, nurturing figure everyone needs to have in their life to survive.  To me, she was the best of both worlds.  She was bold, she was honest, she was gentle and full of wisdom and she could put grandpa in his place whenever it was called for.

I pose these few questions to you all; do you think Pia’s grandmother was always strong?  Or was it the birth of Pia and the constant struggle she witnessed her go through to gain the love and acceptance from her grandfather that made grandma feel more confident and empowered to stand up to Koro and the traditions of the Maori?  Do you think Koro actually saw the leadership skills in Pia but was too consumed with tradition to allow her to prove herself?  Since Koro was the tribe leader, do you think he could have just appointed Pia as the new leader if she did prove herself or was there something more holding him back?  I know there is much discussion at the end of the movie whether Pia and Koro die or not.  If they did not, and Koro discovered that his sons pregnant girlfriend was carrying a boy, do you think he would have continued to acknowledge and train Pia as the new leader or would he post pone or cancel it all together since there was a boy now entering the family?  Do you think Koro was convinced gender did not really matter for the traditions of the Maori?