The Whale Rider Heroine's Journey

Niki Caro’s film The Whale Rider, conveys the importance of rebelling in order to progress through depicting the stage of finding the boon of success in the Heroine’s Journey. After Koro’s young, male students fail to retrieve Koro’s rei puta to determine who would become the next chief, Paikea secretly retrieves his rei puta. In this scene, Caro alternates between shots of Paikea diving into the ocean and shots of the rei puta lying on the ocean floor with seaweed surrounding it. Through the portrayal of Paikea diving into the ocean to retrieve the rei puta, Caro demonstrates Paikea “diving” into her culture and finding ways to carry on old traditions whilst breaking the old traditions which are no longer applicable to her day and age. The