Every culture has it’s own traditions and many of the times these traditions are broken when new generations are born. In the film Whale Rider depicts a culture in transition. The Maori, the native Polynesian people of New Zealand, are looking for a male descendant of Paikea the brave leader who escaped death on the back of a whale to lead them and restore the traditions. Koro Pai’s grandfather has been waiting for the first born of the new generation who should be chief. Unfortunately the tradition
Coming of Age A famous myth of the Maori people is that of their great ancestor Paikea who rides a whale all the way to the island of New Zealand. Thus the name Paikea and whales have become sacred entities of Maori culture. The movie Whale Rider, directed by Niki Caro, describes a Maori girl given this blessed name Paikea, and her journey to find her place in the world. The only way she can finally be accepted in their society is by completing her role as a representation of her ancestor. The director
film, Whale Rider, is an aspiring story of a young Maori girl’s pursuit to prove herself to her grandfather and to undertake her destiny as the tribal leader. Her grandfather, Chief of Whangara has old-fashioned attitudes that blind him to his granddaughter’s potential as his successor. It is only when tragedy strikes that Pai can prove to her grandfather that her community’s link with the spiritual world of the Maori lives on. The emphasis on Maori culture and myth allow us to classify Whale Rider
A young girl named Paikea once said, “In the old days, the land felt a great emptiness. It was waiting. Waiting to be filled. Waiting for someone to love it. Waiting for a leader” (Whale Rider). As seen in the eyes of Paikea, from the movie Whale Rider, a leader is a guide, someone who guides his or her people in the right directions, someone who does all he or she can do to improve his or her land. In the eyes of Antigone, from the play Antigone, princess of Thebes, the rules of the leader only
The Whale Rider, directed by Niki Caro, follows the story of a young Maori girl called Pai, to fulfil her destiny of one day becoming the leader of her tribe. One of the most important characters to the story, is the main character, Paikea ‘Pai’ Apirana, She helps the audience appreciate and better understand the themes of leadership, and sexism. Caro uses many techniques to convey these themes, such as symbolism, different camera shots and angles, dialogue and lighting. Throughout The Whale Rider
The setting of the movie is in a small village in New Zealand. The people of this town have a strong belief in Paikea who is said to be “The Whale Rider.” In each generation, a male born to the Chief will take the title as Whale Rider. The film starts out in a hospital where the Chief’s oldest son, Porourangi, welcomes twin boy and girl into the world. Sadly, the mother and one of the babies die during childbirth. The baby that survived is a girl and her name is Pai. Porourangi is so upset and in
tremendous impact on the way one views others and the world. People adapt their culture or things that they do on a everyday basis based off the things their culture has taught them or the things they see. In the drama/family movie, the Whale Rider directed by Niki Caro, In the beginning of the movie when Pai was born and her dad left and gave her to her grandfather Koro because of what Porourangi named her and that is was not a part of their culture. A couple of years later Porourangi came
A hero is someone who will attempt everything in their power to help others and risk everything they have to help others. In the movie, The Whale Rider, you can clearly see all the elements of The Hero’s Journey. A young girl named Paula Apirana, is living in a small village with her grandparents. Paika’s dad, who is living in Spain, returns to see Paula and proposes that she should come live with him. She declines the offer and decided to stay with her grandparents. Paula then secretly tries to
messages as far as culture goes that we see in the film the whale Rider, is when all the wheels are forced up on the beach to the Maori this is not just a tragic event in the animal kingdom, to them it is a sign that their culture has lost its way. I think we can see the same cultural significance in how our own native Americans felt that losing the Buffalo was harbinger of their own people’s culture disappearing. In the film the whale Rider we see Koro trying to teach the young boys of the town or
Whale Rider is an award-winning film that takes place just off a small village in New Zealand. The movie was set between the time periods from the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s. The opening scene presents one of the Chiefs son’s accompanying his wife through labor, where she is presumed dead along with one of their twins, the boy. The only survivor is the daughter, which is named Pai. This is highly controversial, as Paikea is said to be the name of the future chief, named after the original Paikea
This book really grabbed me right from the beginning of the story. The story begins with the birth of fraternal twins, with the grandfather patiently awaiting the birth of the son. Right away I felt sadness when the mother and one of the twins die. The boy dies and the girl survives. The grandpa seems to not care about the girl who survived . He was longing for his grandson because he is from the Maori tribe and the tribe is waiting for the sign of a new chief to be born . The chief would lead the
The movie whale rider is a 2002 New Zealand- German family drama movie directed by Niki Caro. The movie is inspired by a book of the same name by Witi Ihimaera. The movie takes place in present day New-Zealand and focuses around Pai, a twelve year old Maori girl who desires to be the next chief of her tribe, but the current tribe chief and her grandfather Koro opposes the idea of a girl ever becoming a chief and undermines all her achievement. The movie revolves around Pai who lost her mother and
What is The Whale Rider about? Is it like every other story? This book is called The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera. The Whale Rider isn’t like every other story I’ve read before. This story has a strong female leader who never gave up in what she thought her destiny was. When I finished the story I believe that the theme of The Whale Rider was to overcome the odds to achieve the greatness. Koro Apirana always thought that Kahu was bad luck to the tribe. Kahu never gave up in her grandfather in making
way that should not ever change, but through life there has been a small population who are immune from societies spell. The outcasts that must battle to stand up for what they believe is right. In the novels Antigone, Anthem, and in the movie Whale Rider, the main characters fight for what they believe is right by standing up to society's norms the society has deemed acceptable. In the novel Anthem, Prometheus must stand up to society and break the bonds of brotherhood in order to fight for knowledge
We as a class have watched the movie ‘Whale Rider’, created by Niki Caro in two thousand and three. We are writing a response in paragraphed sentence form to analyse and evaluate this emotional film. I strongly believe that three themes I found intriguing were respect, tradition and cultural identity. A major theme in ‘Whale Rider’ is respect, the film made it obvious that Koro holds the most respect for he is the chief and everyone is expected to abide by his rules. Pai shows strength by standing
The world is full of signs guiding us in the right direction, symbols that signify the elements of our lives, and rituals that keep us grounded and remind us of the old. The movie The Whale Rider directed by Niki Caro is an excellent portrayal of the significance behind these things. In this film Koro struggles with the importance of tradition, Paikea attempts to prove herself to her grandfather, and their relationship withstands many struggles throughout the film. These can be seen through the various
“When she was born, that’s when things went wrong for us…” The film, Whale Rider, written and directed by Niki Caro, is a simple one but with a lot of plot meaning behind it. The original novel was written by male author, Witi Ihimaera, who is a Maori author having written 3 books about his cultural beliefs. Whale Rider is well-loved in New Zealand, and now it has touched the hearts of all people around the world. “Leadership is not about shouting and screaming. It’s about being the person that serves
However, when a woman is seen as an authoritative figure, she is often considered pushy, bossy, conceited and emotional. This paper will analyze how these labels against women create inequalities among gender roles. It will do this using the story of Whale Rider, to convey how leadership roles and identity politics were shaped by feminism, tradition, and culture in a society. Although gender roles seem trivial, it is in fact still crucial in terms of today’s concern over gender inequality. It follows, then
Reflective Introduction The purpose of this reflective outline is to demonstrate a thorough understanding of theories, concepts, and/or strategies relating to cultural and social religions. “Whale Rider” (Caro, 2002) , is a depictive representation of a cultural religion that has survived on the belief of male inheritance as their form of guidance; however, history has shown that change is inevitable. For example, throughout history, religion has played a pivotal role in the development of individuals
Antigone Rides the Whale Antigone, a play written by Sophocles, and Whale Rider directed by Niki Caro are stories that taking place in different eras and location but are very similar in storylines. The text Antigone and share a similar storyline and even share major themes. Both are about a young girl whose brother dies and she tries to uphold tradition but is constrained by her gender. One of the most obvious similarities in both Antigone and Whale Rider, the brother of the protagonist dies.