As the narrator, Rawiri relates the events through his personal experience and conversations. This allows us to have a deeper understanding of what had happened that lead to the progress of the story. For example, we know what the relationship between Koro and Nanny is unusual yet endearing as they often quarrel in a chidish manner, like during the time Nanny rowed out to sea to get him back when he was out sulking about Kahu’s birth. We also know that Nanny’s headstrong personality is partially influenced by the fact that her ancestor, Muriwai, inspires her to champion the rights of women. All these enable us to know more about the characters and thus understand the reasons behind certain actions these characters make. He also highlights the theme of gender discrimination through Koro’s steadfast opposition to Kahu as he ‘virtually hurled’ her out of the meetinghouse, a place not for females, and told her to ‘go away’ many times, not even considering her as a potential leader even though she displays many outstanding qualities like leadership skills. During his time at Papua New Guinea, he also highlighted the issue of racial discrimination as he himself with the other natives are discriminated and marginalised.
As the narrator, Rawiri relates the events through his personal experience and conversations. This allows us to have a deeper understanding of what had happened that lead to the progress of the story. For example, we know what the relationship between Koro and Nanny is unusual yet endearing as they often quarrel in a chidish manner, like during the time Nanny rowed out to sea to get him back when he was out sulking about Kahu’s birth. We also know that Nanny’s headstrong personality is partially influenced by the fact that her ancestor, Muriwai, inspires her to champion the rights of women. All these enable us to know more about the characters and thus understand the reasons behind certain actions these characters make. He also highlights the theme of gender discrimination through Koro’s steadfast opposition to Kahu as he ‘virtually hurled’ her out of the meetinghouse, a place not for females, and told her to ‘go away’ many times, not even considering her as a potential leader even though she displays many outstanding qualities like leadership skills. During his time at Papua New Guinea, he also highlighted the issue of racial discrimination as he himself with the other natives are discriminated and marginalised.