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Māori Chanting

The film Whale Rider is a unique and complex story of the indigenous Māori people from

New Zealand. The story follows a young girl named Paikea, a name that comes from her great

ancestor, the Whale Rider. She is a natural leader and is connected to both her people and her

ancestors, but she is a girl, and not a boy. That means she will never be the chief or the leader her

grandfather has been waiting for. Through struggle and hardship, she proves to her grandfather

she is Paikea, the Whale Rider. She brings the community together and connects them back to

their culture. In the end it is not her strength that saves the community, but everyone’s power

when brought together as one. The film won multiple awards, and their lead actor, Keisha

Castle-Hughes, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress at the age of 13. These

achievements are well deserved, as the film itself is a cinematic masterpiece. From the plot, to

the writing, to the cinematography, to the acting, to the cultural representation throughout each

scene. One of the aspects of the film that stood out to me specifically was the voyaging and waka

building. A waka is a traditional Māori boat that, in this film, represents the origin of the culture

and practices. The waka is symbolic to Paikea’s community, and shows the audience how she is

connected to her ancestry, how modern boats require less connection, and how a waka can bring

a community back together as one.

Paikea is shown to be very connected to her heritage and culture. Though her community

is slowly giving into a western influence, she does not. From the way she acts to her pride when

chanting, she shows her love for her culture. The Waka is a part of this. Hidden in her backyard

and cast away after her mother’s death, is the unfinished Waka. Her father never completed it,
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and so it lays useless in the yard. Useless, but not to Paikea. She is shown in the boat over and

over again during the film. The Waka is her escape, and her connection back to her ancestors.

She, like the waka, has been left behind, and labeled as useless. What could have been had

become nothing. That was until Paikea proved herself to her family and her community, and

united her people back to their culture. It is then that they decide to finish the Waka, and send it

off into the ocean where it belongs. Not useless, just not given the chance to float. Like Paikea,

the waka would never work alone. Her strength belongs with her communities. Together they can

change their home for the better. Together they can move the waka forward and row it into the

sea.

Koro did not understand that the community had to work together, as one. He believed

one person, the next chief, could lead everyone. This is represented the same way it was with the

waka. In the end, everyone needs to work together to row the boat, but until the end no waka is

shown. Not even Koro, a man who holds his heritage with such high regard, uses these

traditional boats. Instead he, like the rest of the community, uses small modern boats. When he

leads the first born boys out into the water he does it alone with the help of a modern engine.

Even if that event is sacred and extremely cultural, he does not use a traditional boat. If he did he

would need the entire community, which is not what he is fighting for. He wants one, and only

one, to lead. This goes completely against what Paikea wants, and in the end, she proves him

wrong. When the waka is brought back to life she rides it with her people, and so does Koro. He

does not take charge, no one does. They work in their own jobs together as one.

The connection that brought her community together was tied directly to the waka as

well. Before Paikea brought them back to their traditions they were deeply influenced by a
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western society. The adults spent their days drinking and smoking away their lives. They were

not connected to their own families, and disconnected themselves from their own culture. Their

children were being swept further away from their heritage, following in their parent’s footsteps.

Koro knew he had to change this dynamic, and tried to find a chief among the boys. His school

did accomplish part of his goal, as the kids learnt more of the culture and accepted it as their

own. They could have worked together in their new found value for their heritage, but Koro

pushed them to work against one another. When they went after Koro’s rei puta one of the kids

grabbed it, but during a fight between another boy he dropped it back into the ocean. In Koro’s

fight for a better community, he also left the adults behind. Hemi, a boy in the sacred school, has

a father who consistently abandons him and the rest of his community. It is Paikea who can see

that the adults need to step up as well. She sees that everyone, every child, every adult, from

every past and every gender, needs to come back together as one. When they ride out in Waka it

is the adults that take them forward. Cleaned up and back in their culture, they are setting an

example for their children.

The waka is one of many symbols in the Whale Rider, and like the others, shares a

complex summary of the film’s greatest themes. It shows not only the development of the story,

but also of each character. It represents so much to Paikea, and eventually the rest of the

community. It is a symbol of culture and renewale. It is a way to move forward as one, together

with the strength of the community.