Whale Rider – film commentary

The song of a whale calls through deep water as the huge mammal swims far below the surface of the ocean. At the same time a woman labours in childbirth.

Boy and girl twins are born to a young Maori couple living in Whangara on the East Coast of New Zealand. These opening shots of the film Whale Rider, accompanied by the voice over of a girl, create a sense of portent, a sense that more than usual is at stake in this particular birth.

“In the old days the land felt a great emptiness. It was waiting to be filled, waiting for someone to love it, waiting for a leader…. our ancestor Paikea. But now we were waiting for the first born of the new generation…. My brother died and took our mother with him … He died and I didn’t”.

The story of Whale Rider is about Pai, a girl descended from Paikea[1], the mythical ancestor of Ngati Konohi hapu (sub tribe) who live in Whangara on the East Coast of New Zealand. Paikea is said to have arrived from their place of origin, Hawaikii, on the back of a whale.

Pai’s grandfather, her koro, is looking for a successor to the leadership of the tribe which has become fragmented. Many of the people have taken up with European panaceas - tobacco, drugs, alcohol, city entertainment – to replace the loss of spirit and meaning that follow colonisation.