Whale Rider

Whale Rider is a New Zealand- German family film. The story line is about Paikea, a twelve-year-old Maori girl who wants to become the chief of the tribe but the tradition lead to her grandfather Koro believes this role is only reserved for first-born son in a family. Paikea struggles in earning his grandfather’s acknowledgement and to prove worthy of herself to be the new chief in the tribe.

            Throughout the film, we can see sexism happened in this environment. Koro, as a current chief in the tribe is very concern about the gender of first born baby of his son. Unfortunately, Paikea’s twin brother died which has disappointed Koro’s hope in finding new chief. Koro did not allow his son, Porourangi to name his daughter ‘Paikea’, which is the name of the whale rider (their descendant) just because Paikea is not a male.  Even though he has changed his attitude towards his granddaughter afterwards, when it is time to find new chief in the tribe, he changed his attitude towards Paikea. During the training period for all first born son in the tribe, Paikea did not allowed to join the training just because she is not a male.

            We can also see the principle of gender stereotype apply in Koro’s traditional thought. When Koro’s started a cultural school for first-born son on the tribes to teach them the traditional customs and qualities of a chief. Koro’s ignored Paikea’s ability to be a chief because she is a female and traditionally, only male is allowed to be the chief. I still remember one of a scene, when Koro, Paikea and her grandmother is having dinner together, Koro’s are angry, and he asked Paikea to clean up the floor because this is female role in the cultural.

            Nontheless, cognitive dissonance, the feeling of discomfort experiences by Koro when he has different beliefs in finding out the new chief at the same time. This can be semmed in Koro's character obvilusly when he knows Paikea is a destined leader of the tribe but he ignores the ability of Paikea and looks for other first-born son as next chief in the tribe. When he realised Paikea won in the random fight with a seemed talented leader male, he is very angry and asked Paikea to apologise until she mean it. We can see Koro ignores Paikea talented leadership happened here. Another scene of cognitive dissonance is the moment when he thought there must be a young boy who can find the rei puta, the whale tooth, that he threw inside the sea. He is very disappointed and depressed with this evidence. The moment when he witnessed Paikea save the dying whale, she can connect with the descendant, and the scene when his wife gives him the rei puta that has found by Paikea, he only admit Paikea as the next leader in the chief.  

.           The interesting part of this film is the scene when Paikea can connect, and call the descendant. To me, this scene cannot be explained by science as I have never seemed this happened in my life. Overall, this is an interesting movie when we can see the struggles met by Koro in finding next chief by denying Koro’s talented ability and Koro’s challenges in proving herself can be the chief in the tribe.