Whale Rider

Gender stereotype, love and cognitive dissonance

The movie kick start with a typical gender stereotype where men are more superior as compared to woman. This can be seen In Koro's reaction when Paikea's twin brother passed on. Koro held on strongly onto the tradition and rituals in the Maori community, which stated that only the first born son from each family are allowed to be the chef in the Maori community. Despite being firm and strict in a way, Koro's love for his granddaughter, Paikea can be seen in some occasions in the film. For instance, Koro tend to cycle. Paikea to and back from school everyday. And when Paikea decided to leave with her father, Koro showed his love by requesting to cycle Paikea for the last time before she left.  Koro's love towards Paikea became contradictory when Paikea began showing signs of leadership suggesting that she could be the next chef of the Maori community. For example, when Paikea successfully start the broken engine without the aid of external tools, Koro stormed at her in anger. As a result of the contradiction between love and gender stereotype, Koro struggled with cognitive dissonance which had led him into a self-defense mechanism of denial.

From denial to acceptance

At the beginning when Koro began to realize Paikea's potential in leadership, Koro was in a denial. He refused to provide Paikea with equal learning opportunity when he was training the first born boys in the community. In addition to that, he also refused to cycle Paikea back from school like how he used to do before Paikea decide to stay in the community instead of leaving with her father. Koro's denial slowly evolved into acceptance when Paikea kept proving her ability in the movie. For instance, when Koro refused to teach Paikea the traditional martial art of the Maori community, Paikea was able to learn for her uncle Rawiri and beat Koro's student. Paikea again proved her determination by diving into the ocean to recover Koro's lost whale tooth, which the boys easily gave up on searching. Towards the end of the movie, Paikea showed her worthiness by riding on a whale to lead the other back into the ocean. At the end of the movie, Koro completely accepted the fact that Paikea will be the next leader in the. Maori community.

Connection to the nature

I personally find the scenes of the whales swimming in the ocean heart warming. The interaction of the Maori community and the whales reminds us how our ancestors used to be so close to the nature in their daily life.