Whale Rider

Introduction

            Whale Rider is a story that talks about a young girl whose name Paikea on how she is struggle to the acceptance from her grandfather (Koro).  She is struggle to play the role what her grandfather expects her to be and the role that she believes she was born with. 

The story begins with the unfortunate incident when Paikea’s older twin brother and mother had passed away during birth.  Her father named her after the legendary ancestor Paikea; however, Koro did not recognize her appearance.  He denies Paikea as he believe that only the first-born male of every generation were allowed to take up the role of leader of the tribe.  Paikea had been left to her grandparents and being brought up by both her grandparents in the tribe.  Over the years as Paikea grew up, Koro no longer looked at Paikea with the same feeling of disappointment after a period of living together.  However, Koro still refused to treat her as the leader of the tribe.  But, Paikea believes that by sharing the same name with the ancestor, she firmly believes that it was her duty to lead the tribe and would not allow gender and Koro’s discourage statement to hold her back.  She tried a lot of other ways to learn to be the chief of the tribe.

There are several psychology concepts that may had demonstrated in this movie.  Below I will start to explain each concept one by one and show how it had been portrayed in the movie.  

Gender Identity

            As mentioned in the paragraph above Paikea was rejected by her grandfather.  The tribe practice patriarchal.  It is a social system in which males hold primary power and hold more predominant power over female like being the chief of the tribe.  Due to the culture that practice by the tribe, Koro invalidate Paikea’s significance in the family and to the people in the village.  But, Paikea did not believe in this culture and tried very hard to fit it so that she can grant the approval from her grandfather.  For example, she learned the Maori’s martial art from her uncle secretly; but, when her grandfather found it out, he was angry to Paikea as he believes that only male can learn it and it is specially prepared for the future leader.  Although Paikea perform better than other boy and did fulfilled all the requirement but Koro never accepted Paikea as his inheritance.

Need for recognition and acceptance

            Paikea behave like a boy to break the stereotype that Koro had onto her.  Her gender as being a female was destined and can’t be change, but there is something that still can change which is the ability.  She wants to prove to her grandfather on her ability is not being confined by gender and she has the ability to do what the boys can do and even can do better than them.  For instances, Paikea was able to dive into the ocean and retrieve the whale tooth that Koro had thrown in the sea and all the boy failed to do so. 

            Paikea did a lot of things that may seems to be not make any sense but the acceptance and recognition from Koro drove her to do it without hesitance.  This was being portrayed in the movie when Koro was depressed and was calling help from the ancestor when he did not found the right one to be the leader to lead the tribe.  Paikea saw that and wanted to help her grandfather.  She imitated the groan and tried to seek help from the ancestor although she did not know whether did this method work or not. 

Challenging Mindset

            The traditional mindset had been challenged and it changed until Koro realized that because of his stubbornness, he nearly lost his granddaughter and causes the tribe to lost the chief.  This remind me that people may not willing to change as change may indicate that they might do wrong in the past and need to step out from the comfort zone.  People will only realize the matter when it is too late to change and some irreversible events had happened.  I personally think that challenging is not an easy thing that everyone can do it especially in the conservative culture.  This is because conservative culture tends to have the stereotype that elderly will not admit their mistake in front of the young generation.  This happened in my family as well, although my mother is a well-educated person but she will not have admitted her false decision and always blame on others that lead to the situation become worse. 

This similar situation had reminded me on a book that I had read in the past that talks about every mistake is our own mistake no matter what is the reason behind it.  Although at first, I do not understand the analogy behind it and finally I get it right.  The analogy of this statement is that if we do admit that the mistake is the false that we had made, then we will have had the room of changing and improve it; however, if we blame it on others, we could not do anything and can only wait for other to change it.  To change others is not under our own capabilities but changing our own self is totally another different issue. 

Conclusion

            In a nutshell, the movie had brought a huge impact to me on the importance of family and community can grow further with harmony.  I believe that no matter what is the obstacles that we may encountered in our life, a family and the community stays together in harmony may help one and another to pass through it and move forward and become better compare to the past.