Whale Rider
The Whale Rider
By Witi Ihimaera
Published May 2003
Kahu (Pai) is an eight year old Maori girl with a special gift. She can communicate with whales. She could be the leader her tribe needs, but her great-grandfather adheres strictly to Maori tradition which requires a male heir. He barely acknowledges her.
The Whale Rider" tells the story of Kahu, a young girl in New Zealand struggling to find her place in her family and community. She craves the love of her great-grandfather, but he's entirely focused on the future of their tribe who don't have an elder male heir to inherit the chief's title.
There's only Kahu, and her great-grandfather doesn't see the use of a girl. Kahu is strong and determined, and her destiny as the fabled whale rider is secure due to her ability to communicate with whales, but only if her tribe notice in time.
This is a beautiful story about the struggles with tradition, about magic versus reality, about the status of our modern world with its racism and sad ecology.
The theme of Whale Rider – that of female empowerment – is not unique, but the context in which it is presented is. Like many tribal societies, the Maoris are patriarchal, and the concept of a female ruler, if not unthinkable, goes against tradition.
Whale Rider assumes what might happen if, in seeming contravention of religious custom, a girl appears to have been endowed with the mystical abilities of chieftain.
The Whangara people live in a village on the eastern coast of New Zealand – a place they have inhabited for more than a millennium. Legend says that their demi-god ancestor, Paikea, arrived in New Zealand on the back of a whale.
Since then, the first-born son has always been the Whangara chieftain – until now. Pai is the lone survivor of a difficult birth that claims the lives of her mother and her twin brother. Her grief-stricken father, Porourangi (Cliff Curtis), flees the island for Europe, leaving his little daughter in the care of his father and mother, Koro
By Witi Ihimaera
Published May 2003
Kahu (Pai) is an eight year old Maori girl with a special gift. She can communicate with whales. She could be the leader her tribe needs, but her great-grandfather adheres strictly to Maori tradition which requires a male heir. He barely acknowledges her.
The Whale Rider" tells the story of Kahu, a young girl in New Zealand struggling to find her place in her family and community. She craves the love of her great-grandfather, but he's entirely focused on the future of their tribe who don't have an elder male heir to inherit the chief's title.
There's only Kahu, and her great-grandfather doesn't see the use of a girl. Kahu is strong and determined, and her destiny as the fabled whale rider is secure due to her ability to communicate with whales, but only if her tribe notice in time.
This is a beautiful story about the struggles with tradition, about magic versus reality, about the status of our modern world with its racism and sad ecology.
The theme of Whale Rider – that of female empowerment – is not unique, but the context in which it is presented is. Like many tribal societies, the Maoris are patriarchal, and the concept of a female ruler, if not unthinkable, goes against tradition.
Whale Rider assumes what might happen if, in seeming contravention of religious custom, a girl appears to have been endowed with the mystical abilities of chieftain.
The Whangara people live in a village on the eastern coast of New Zealand – a place they have inhabited for more than a millennium. Legend says that their demi-god ancestor, Paikea, arrived in New Zealand on the back of a whale.
Since then, the first-born son has always been the Whangara chieftain – until now. Pai is the lone survivor of a difficult birth that claims the lives of her mother and her twin brother. Her grief-stricken father, Porourangi (Cliff Curtis), flees the island for Europe, leaving his little daughter in the care of his father and mother, Koro