Whales Essay

The story of Whale Rider takes place in a Maori village in New Zealand. The main character is a 12 year old girl name Paikea “Pai” Apirana and her ambition to become the next Chief of her village. Along with following on Pai’s story, the movie showed a great number of local Maori religion and culture. Some of the things I will explore is the Maori religion, gender roles, and a personal reflection on what was learned through the movie. Maori Religion focuses on animism. Three aspects of this religion

Minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) have likely always been rare in the Salish Sea. Minke whales are unique due to their reproduction, size, evasiveness, and surfacing patterns. There is growing evidence that the current population of minke whales in the Pacific Northwest have always remained the same. The current minke whale population is currently estimated around one thousand, and a book in 1870 called The Marine Mammals by Charles Scammon revealed that in the 1800s before whaling happened

The film Whale Rider takes A large portion of the film fixates on the dynamic of this connection amongst Koro, the tribal chief, and his granddaughter Paikea. Paikea respects her grandfather, and has a puzzling association with the tribe’s ancestry; her namesake, Paikea the Whale Rider, travelled from Hawaii to New Zealand on the back of a whale. Paikea spends the most of the film trying to prove her worth and gain respect from her grandfather. Unlike many of the other tribal youth, she reveres the

In the film Whale Rider, the whale represents life and death. The whale represents life because it is the mammal on which Paikea’s great ancestor rode across the ocean reaching New Zealand which eventually became the settlement of the Maori people. The whale represents death because the Maori people would not be on the island they live on if Paikea the great ancestor had not ridden the whale to the secluded island in the Pacific. The whale is not only a mean of transportation of the great ancestor

The Whale Rider, a novel written by Witi Ihimaera which is set on the East coast of New Zealand at Whāngārā. The novel tells the story of the local Māori iwi, Te Tai Rawhiti, and of Kahu, a young Māori girl whose spirit and determination challenges tradition to overcome adversity and lead her people into the advancing times. In this essay the theme of tradition The Whale Rider takes place during a time where Māori culture was witnessing a decline, there were concerns of the culture being assimilated

Caro's focus on the pre-adolescent female protagonist in Whale Rider creates a parallel between the personal development of the individual and that of the ancient Maori culture in modern society. The Whangara people are portrayed as “a community frozen in time, waiting to be saved” (Hokowhitu 58) as they believe that their existence is reliant purely on a brave prophet, Paikea, who rode on the back of a whale to escape death. Whangara chiefs trust that each first born male has the potential to be

Niki Caro’s highly commended film, ‘Whale Rider’, tells the story of a young Maori’s girl’s effort to prove herself to her grandfather, the Chief of Whangara. Her grandfather has traditional attitudes that blind him to see his granddaughter’s potential as chief and it is only when tragedy strikes that Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) can prove to Koro (Rawiri Paratene) that her community’s link with the traditions and culture of the Maori lives on. The film is set in the small New Zealand seaside village

Whale Rider Essay ‘Whale Rider’ directed by Nicki Caro has won many awards such as Critic’s Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer and Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film. The award-winning film explores the many privileges, obligations and duties of the leaders and potential leaders in protagonist Pai’s Maori community. Caro does this through characterisations of Pai, and her supporting characters, such as Koro, her grandfather. He believes that his duty was to establish

Whale rider is told in the context of a Maori tribe in modern New Zealand. The movie tells the story of a young girl, Pai, and her grandfather Karo, who must struggle with adapting a patriarchal Maori legend with the Pai's seeming affinity with sacred traditions. The music in this movie underscores each scene and leaves the viewer feeling moved emotionally. Music tells the audience how they should be feeling and what emotions they should be experiencing. It adds scale and dramatizes events. Music

Whale Rider Essay: Koro Apirana In the film ‘Whale Rider’, directed by Niki Caro, an old man named Koro Apirana is in search of a young man to take his place as chief. He has to change many of his views and beliefs to be able to become more accepting of his granddaughter, who shows the true potential of the new leader that he had been looking for. Throughout the movie, Koro has to learn that the world isn’t the same as it used to be. He must learn to love and accept his family, and that his opinion