“Whale Rider”: Learning and Unlearning

My series of blog’s chronicling hidden New Zealand Media is one that I had put down for some time, but in bringing it back now, it seems funny to highlight a not so hidden gem in New Zealand’s film history.

 2003’s “Whale Rider” stands as one of the finest Kiwi films, based on the novel “The Whale Rider” by one of New Zealand’s finest authors, Witi Ihimaera.

On top of the stellar cast and outstanding performances, the deep and rich connections to Maori culture, its themes of tradition and change, there is something else I wish to expand on about the film that may possibly help other writers like myself in writing coming-of-age stories much like “Whale Rider.”

One of my absolute favourite Youtubers right now is a fellow named Lucas, better known by his alias “LocalScriptMan”. If you wish to improve your writing on a base level from the ground up, his videos are some of the most invaluable, balanced, and comprehensive showcases in bringing out what you want to achieve in your writing, be it screenplay or book.

For greater context, below is a link to a video he made where he discussed another Kiwi film I adore. “Boy.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtzeTuC2714&ab_channel=LocalScriptMan

In many of his stuff, he always discusses the importance of varying kinds of trauma or pain-related backstory that build the foundation of a character and their arc in which they may address that trauma or undo certain beliefs to help heal from that trauma. A story of “unlearning” if you will. I couldn’t agree more.

In this video however, he also addresses the appeal of coming-of-age stories in that, with younger characters closer to children, there is instead the journey of that character undergoing that original trauma or pain and thus enters a state of “learning”, in which the character learns something very important and changes their worldview or beliefs/behaviour in response.

I want to break down these concepts that are also presented in “Whale Rider” and see what we can gleam from it all.

This is a dramatic and powerful story at its core, in which young Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is a headstrong girl who after being born lost both her mother and brother during childbirth.

She’s around 11 to 13 in the story and grows up in Whangara led by the current elderly patriarch Koro, Paikea’s grandfather.

Paikea was named after a legendary ancestor in her family line, the Paikea who rode upon a whale from Hawaiki, and it is tradition that the first born son of the line be the one who leads the village. Since current Paikea’s brother had passed, she seemingly was not receiving of this title. It’s pretty clear from the get go that while Koro is loving in his own way to Paikea, there is some resentment to her existence and with a lot of strife afflicting the village and its community, he feels inclined to pin such troubles upon Paikea.

Koro even gathers the young boys of the village together and runs them under a series of tests to determine a new leader. An endeavour that returns with minimal results, much to great despair

I won’t go too far into details, so I suggest you watch the film first before I continue here, but Paikea proves time and time again that she possesses the inner strength, passion, and where-with-all to be a future leader. Her passion and understanding of her culture shines and she always tries to garner affections from her grandfather, though often met only with misogynistic scorn.

Koro serves largely as the main force of conflict and resistance in the story, but is by no means a “villain” in the blunt sense. These are characters and themes that are as close to three dimensional as you can hope for. However, I would argue this is as much a story focused on Koro as it is on Paikea.

Paikea is on a small path of learning, but not one based on pain or trauma to deal with, other than the neglect from her grandfather. Her progress is how she submerges herself into everything her people and culture are, from practising song and dance to even learning hwo to wield a taiaha, she goes through an arc that while I would argue is a touch static, is still one to root for.

She remains static while it is those around her that she changes, in a paragon-like fashion. I would argue still however, that the key part of her arc is not just that she’s trying to prove herself to her family and grandfather, but that she can prove it to herself above all else. Perhaps, even to spite Koro, if it means getting attention from him.

So now, drawing upon the parallels of learning/unlearning, it’s clear that Koro shifts through the hardest journey of unlearning. Where his core belief that affects his behaviour is tackled and where he undergoes the process of unlearning his gender-based bias and finally perceives Paikea to be the leader the village needs. After that, things finally fall into place. 

This is my addition to Local’s video as a sort of nod of agreement in that coming-of-age stories often work better when the one who is coming of age learns something that lays down the groundwork for who they will be beyond the story. Whereas stories outside of this often have a characters having a certain ideal or viewpoint or some pain that is addressed and is “unlearnt.”

I believe “Whale Rider” is another fantastic showcase on writing character arcs like this and how you can hopefully implement them effectively if you are drawing similar themes and characters in your own work.

I have only touched the surface of this fantastic film, but I highly recommend you watch it and read the book as they are both legendary pieces in New Zealand’s book and film hall of fame. It’s a classic for a reason and I hope you gleamed some clever writing advice from it too.

Speaking of which, I highly recommend also that you check out Local’s channel as well, his stuff has been quintessential writing gold and his points and discussions are insanely well put together and balanced, tackling writing for the subjectively creative artistic process that it is.

Thank you for reading and have a beautiful day!

-          Daniel

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