The Whale Rider

“Watching, the ancient bull whale was swept up in memories of his own birthing. His mother had been savaged by sharks three months later; crying over her in the shallows of Hawaiki, he had been succoured by the golden human who became his master. The human had heard the young whale’s distress and had come into the sea, playing a flute.”

The ancient bull whale recalls the moment he first met his master. This story recounts the establishment of the first whale rider, where a oneness between man and whale is achieved. This relationship becomes an explicit example of the larger creation and subsequent destruction of oneness.

“The problem was that Koro Apirana could not reconcile his traditional beliefs about Maori leadership and rights with Kahu’s birth. By Maori custom, leadership was hereditary and normally the mantle of mana fell from the eldest son to the eldest son. Except in this case, there was an eldest daughter.”

Koro Apirana is angered by the dismantling of his male lineage after the birth of Kahu. According to tradition, the eldest son receives the mantle of mana, yet Kahu occupies that space in the lineage. Koro Apirana’s strict adherence to traditional customs and his fight against change in Maori culture is showcased.

“‘He isn’t any chief. I’m his chief,’ she emphasized to me and, then, over her shoulder to Koro Apirana, ‘and don’t you forget it either.’”

Despite Koro Apirana possessing ignorant thoughts about women’s role in politics and sacred matters, Nanny Flowers retains her power as her husband’s chief. Her heritage and her belief in equality allow her to effectively challenge her husband’s beliefs.

“Now I shall make myself a man!”

Many dichotomies are transcended in this novel, most notably gender identity. The above quote is from the story of Muriwai, who, before acting to save her tribal brothers, must ask the Gods’ permission to act as a man would. She sheds some of her femininity in this scene, having to function as a man and occupy a traditionally male space.

“Rehua, weak and frightened after the birth, had wanted to honour her husband by choosing a name from his people, not hers. That way, should she die, at least her first-born would be linked to her father’s people and land.”

Nanny Flowers’ support of naming Kahu over Kahutia Te Rangi stems from more than just her strong female genes. It stems from her late daughter-in-law’s desire to provide Kahu with a stable home. Kahu would come to be forever linked to her father’s people and the land. Further, the burial of her birth cord fixes her sense of home to Whangara, as one always comes back to the location of their birth cord.

“There she was, being escorted through the Friday crowd like royalty, waving one hand at everybody and holding on tightly with the other. We had to stop at the lights at Peel Street, and the boys and I gunned our motors, just for her. Some of Nanny’s old cronies were crossing; when they saw her through the blue smoke, they almost swallowed their false teeth.”

This scene depicts a kind of procession wherein Nanny Flowers collects her daughter’s birth cord. Nanny Flowers is like royalty because the very child who she is ushering into Maori culture is the final spear.

“The herd, sixty strong, led by its ancient leader, was following the course computed to him in the massive banks of his memory. The elderly females assisted the younger mothers, shepherding the new-born in the first journey from the cetacean crib. Way out in front, on point in the rear, the young males kept guard on the horizon.”

Whales are personified throughout the novel. They are portrayed as wise, emotional, and herd-oriented. They are even given distinct personalities, likening them to humans and thus alluding to the potential for oneness. In the above quote, the function of each whale in the herd is articulated.

“Once, he had a golden master who had wooed him with flute song. Then his master had used a conch shell to bray his commands to the whale over long distances. As their communication grew so did their understanding and love of each other.”

Kahutia Te Rangi and the ancient bull whale develop deep love and admiration for one another. Over time, their communication skills improve along with their innate understanding of one another. Communication as a gateway to understanding is an intriguing thread, as it leads to themes of sharing and intimacy.

“I doubt if any of us realized how significant she was to become in our lives. When a child is growing up somewhere else you can’t see the small signs which mark her out as different, someone who was meant to be. As I have said before, we were all looking somewhere else.”

Rawiri makes this observation in hindsight, as it foreshadows Kahu’s Fate. He comments that no one paid much attention to Kahu because she was being raised elsewhere. Whereas the whale has a swirling moko to mark it out as different, Kahu’s marks of difference were more subtle.

“We were Kahu’s guardians; whenever I was near the place of her birth cord, I would feel a little tug at my motorbike jacket and hear a voice saying, ‘Hey Uncle Rawiri, don’t forget me.’”

Because he knows her birth cord is buried, Nanny Flowers declares Rawiri as Kahu’s guardian. The importance of the birth cord’s location is explained, as it determines where Kahu will feel at home. After this scene, Rawiri develops a deeper relationship with Kahu, as if a barrier has been lifted. He begins to notice odd behaviors in Kahu, such as her making bellowing noises at whales. His guardianship status also makes him a suitable teller of her story.

“It was surprising how closely Kahu and Koro Apirana resembled each other. The only difference was that she loved him but he didn’t love her. He gave her back to Nanny Flowers and she started to cry, reaching for him. But he turned away and walked out of the house.”

Kahu is still an infant and meets her grandfather for the first time. The resemblance between the two signifies Kahu as the rightful granddaughter of Koro Apirana and thus her rightful claim to her father’s lineage. It also foreshadows her role as chief and Koro Apirana’s future obsession with finding a male heir.

“Then she looked up at him, and her eyes seemed to say ‘Don’t think you’re leaving me out of this.”

Kahu has just bitten Koro Apirana’s big toe. She does so as he relays the story where he was tasked with biting a priest’s big toe. Koro Apirana responds angrily, as Kahu should not be sneaking into sacred meetings. This quote shows not only more foreshadowing of Kahu’s true purpose but also Koro Apirana’s deep desire to find a male heir—a desire that has rendered him oblivious to the heir that stands before him, Kahu.

“Under these conditions, the love which Kahu received from Koro Apirana was the sort that dropped off the edge of the table, like breadcrumbs after everybody else had had a big feed. But Kahu didn’t seem to mind.”

Kahu’s indifference towards her grandfather’s neglect confuses the rest of the family. Yet her persistence seems to mirror Nanny Flower’s desire to change Koro Apirana. Where Nanny Flowers acts aggressively, Kahu displays patience. Kahu attempts to understand why it may be difficult for her grandfather to accept her.

“Listen how empty our sea has become.”

Koro Apirana tells this to his male students during a lesson on fishing. Fishing is a sacred act and follows a strict set of rules, such as never fishing for more than is needed. Yet, in the age of commercialism, man has broken this law and robbed the sea of life.

“The booming on the open waters had heralded the coming of a rainstorm like a ghostly wheke advancing from the horizon. As I went into the meeting house I glanced up at our ancestor, Paikea. He looked like he was lifting his whale through the spearing rain.”

Storms represent the coming of danger and anxiety toward the future. In this case, it symbolizes the ancient bull whale’s distress and desire to die. The imagery is dark and sinister, yet Paikea stands tall on the back of the whale, and the rain becomes like spears. The belief that the whale rider will protect the tribe is evident.

“They were right to worry because the ancient whale could only despair that the place of life, and the Gods, had now become a place of death.”

In losing his rider, the ancient bull whale lost his sense of oneness. As such, the world no longer has a place for him to exist. The modern world has rejected him. The island of the Gods is no longer life-giving but a remembrance of the oneness that once was.

“Sometimes life has a habit of flooding over you and rushing you along in its overwhelming tide.”

Water imagery occurs throughout the novel, often to symbolize home or that one should return home. In the above quote, Rawiri has just received a letter from Porourangi while traveling abroad. Rawiri contemplates the strangeness of time and its infinite and unavoidable progression.

“Man might carve his identification mark on the earth but, once he ceases to be vigilant, Nature will take back what man had once achieved to please his vanity.”

Rawiri has this thought while he is in Papua New Guinea. He recounts the unforgiving climate, stating that while man may attempt to tame the land, nature is resilient and powerful. This quote also showcases that man should never act on nature but rather with nature. Any act done to extort nature is an act of greed and vanity.

“‘It’s not Paka’s fault, Nanny,’ she said, ‘that I’m a girl.’”

Kahu struggles to cope with her grandfather’s absence from the break-out ceremony. She somberly understands that Koro Apirana would have preferred a male heir, seemingly granting him compassion in the face of his ignorance. Yet, Kahu does confide in Rawiri that she wishes she had been born a boy so that she could make Koro Apirana proud. Gender roles come to the forefront and are challenged.

“The camera zooms in on one of the whales, lifted high onto the beach by the waves. A truck has been driven down beside the whale. The whale is on its side, and blood is streaming from its mouth. The whale is still alive.”

The imagery is shocking and jarring, as man’s cruel behavior against his former companion is depicted. This scene exposes how distanced man has become from his previous oneness with nature.

“And the seagulls caught his words within their claws and screamed and echoed the syllables overhead.”

Man’s connection to nature underlies the entire book. Nature’s yearning and man’s potentiality to restore oneness are shown in minor instances, such as the above quote. The seagulls echo Koro Apirana’s pain, much like how Kahutia Te Rangi echoed the ancient bull whale’s crying.

“All of a sudden there was a dull booming from beneath the water, like a giant door opening a thousand years ago.”

The ancient bull whale comes into sight. The giant door opened 1,000 years ago harkens back to the first time the whale heard his rider’s flute. It was as if a giant door had opened, and he burst through the ocean and into the air. This act resembles the ancient bull whale’s act of stranding himself on the sea.

“In the passing of Time he divided the world into that half he could believe in and that half he could not believe in. The real and the unreal. The natural and supernatural. The present and the past. The scientific and fantastic. He put a barrier between both worlds and everything on his side was called rational and everyone on the other side was called irrational.”

Koro Apirana rallies the men of the tribe to take action and save the whales. He argues that man has become obsessed with reason. With reason came the establishment of dichotomies and the end of man’s oneness with nature. Instead, he declared himself to be real and nature to be unreal. Koro concludes that the ancient bull whale is both real and unreal, as it bridges the past and the present.