Whale Rider is an emotional story about a young Maori girl trying to gain love and acceptance from her grandfather Koro. While the story of Whale Rider centers on their relationship, it also implicitly notes a key issue and theme regarding the Maori tribe’s adaptation to current society. Both the movie and the novel use the key symbols such as the whale, and taiaha to emphasize the deterioration of the Maori culture. The movie’s usage of visuals and sounds further illustrate this problem facing the Maori society.

One major trouble that both the story and movie hints at is the temptation of Maoris to leave and explore the modern world. In the novel, Pai’s uncle, Rawiri decided to leave their home town Whangara and explore Australia. When Rawiri arrived in Australia, he commented that it was “Kiwi Valley” because he was able to see a Maori cousin everywhere. “I hadn’t realized that there were so many other Maoris over there (I thought I’d be the first), and after a while I realized why it was nicknamed “Kiwi Valley.” Wherever you went you could always count on bumping into a Maori cousin.” This plainly outlined the fact that many Maoris wanted to leave their own culture and pursue a modern life elsewhere. Later on though, we also learn that the lives in Australia for Maoris weren’t all great. “It was there that I came upon my cous Henare, who was now wearing a dress, and other cous, Reremoana, who had changed her name to Lola L’amour and had red hair and fishnet stockings.” Although in the book Rawiri notes that all the Maori cousins that Rawiri had encountered had fond memories of their tribe, the attractions of the modern world attracted them more than the simple ways of the past. Similarly in the movie, Pai’s father Porourangi, completely disobeyed Koro’s instructions to stay and become chief and instead left Whangara for Germany to take on the life of a modern artist. From Koro’s criticism we can see why Porourangi had left. “You can’t wait to get away. I see it in you. You never stay because it hurts you to see what’s happening to us.” This quote implicitly shows that Porourangi couldn’t stand the way the Maori society is heading. Even though we feel that Porourangi really missed his home, he did not go back to that simplistic society. The movie further emphasizes this fact by showing that the children and future generations also seemed dislike and disrespect for their culture. A conversation between Hemi and Pai shows the attitude of Maori children towards their homeland. “Why didn’t you go with your dad? (I did.) For a day? I would have gone. When my dad gets out I’m gonna go with him. (Where?) Wherever, get out of this dump.” This hints that children in this Maori tribe hated the place. He also commented “probably gonna be a stink” at the school that Koro was going to create to teach the children about their traditions.

The novel shows that the Maori youth often run into trouble with the police “I looked at the boys. We had a strange relationship with the cops. But this time we nodded agreement.” Uncle Rawiri seemed to be the leader of a motorcycle gang in Whangara and from hints in the story we can form the picture that they often run into trouble with the police. “Koro Apriana was concerned about our drinking water and was considering at one point bringing it by road tanker. One of the boys suggested that the sweetest water was DB beer…” Koro’s talks with the government also hinted that the Maoris had trouble with land disputes and clean water; it seemed like all the necessities of life in their society were crumbling. The book creates the impression of a peaceful society broken apart by bad social conditions. This was strengthened by the imageries in the movie. In the movie, uncle Rawiri was portrayed as a lazy fat person, hanging around behind a broken bar all day with friends that are always drinking or smoking. The movie emphasizes this fact by filming a dark deteriorated club house where they would just hang around and play pool or drink. Another scene in the movie showed Hemi’s father watching Hemi perform the ritual chant to become chief. Yet while, the boy was doing the chant, his father’s friends came by in their car playing rap music. This was an interesting twist, that couldn’t be done through the book. By cutting back and forth from the traditional chant to modern rap music it shows how the Maori society contrasts with modern life and the problems that it created. We found out that Hemi’s father was probably a gang member that rarely went home and saw Hemi “Thought you’re gonna see the whole thing? I saw your bit didn’t I, mate? See you later. Tonight? Next couple of days maybe”. Things like this illustrated the pressures of the children in Maori life. This point was foreshadowed at the beginning of the film when we see that Hemi around only 12 was smoking. “(You shouldn’t be smoking.) Trying to give up, ain’t I?” The movie was able to amplify this image by actually showing the child smoking around the rundown schoolyard. This provided a more powerful expression of the state of deterioration.

The taiaha was a sacred Maori traditional fighting weapon. Uncle Rawiri in the movie had been a taiaha champion, but somehow now he became fat and lazy. When Porourangi came back, he could hardly recognize his own brother. “Rawiri? Yeah. Put on a bit of weight since I saw you last time.” Uncle Rawiri’s past as a taiaha champion is also a metaphor of the Maori tribe, since his deterioration can be compared to that of the entire tribe. The common symbol used in both the novel and the film to show the decay of the Maori society is the whale. From the story, we were told that the whale riders were the ancestors of this Maori tribe and that the Whale came to symbolize the spirit of this tribe. “‘We had a hard time down south,’ Porourangi said, trying to explain Koro’s agitation. ‘The land dispute was a difficult one and I think Koro is worried about the judge’s decision. Then when he heard about the whales, he grew very somber.’” The whales beaching seemed to come hand in hand with the life of the tribe… “When it dies, we die.” The whales beaching to their death and refusing to go back to the ocean is a metaphor for the slow decaying of the Maori society until eventually it dies. Similarly, this sacred animal was also in film for the same purpose of symbolizing the Maori society’s decay. “Koro knew what it meant. It was Paikea’s whale sent to us because we were in trouble.” However by filming these majestic creatures, the entire symbolism becomes more powerful since we are able to form a picture of the power and life behind the myths of the tribe. The camera technique of cutting from the real whale to the carving of the whale rider greater strengthens this relationship. The whale’s suffering seen on screen and hearing their whales emphasizes the suffering of the entire tribe. Also emphasized by the film’s rugged shaking shots is the struggle between the Maoris to save the whale, which is also a reflection of their struggle for survival in the modern world. The Maoris’ sadness over their failure to save the whale was felt through the combination of music and expressions.

While both mediums clearly demonstrate that the Maori society is deteriorating from its once glorious self, the film medium in this particular story is particularly effective in emphasizing the deterioration better than the book. The examples shown in the film rely more on visuals than those in the book, particularly because the movie is able create imagery, that can’t be replicated by words. By creating new scenes that rely on visuals, the movie is able to film, interpret, and produce the desired effects on the audiences more effectively than scenes from the book that do not rely on visuals. For example, the wrecked club house was shot in the film but wasn’t in the book because the dark club house creates a much better description of the state of the Maori tribe, when shot visually. Extreme Long shots of the country and various institutions and houses also let us see the rural conditions of their culture. Similarly some of the characters, like Uncle Rawiri in the movie are obese which represented an unhealthy society. Smoking also seems to be relied on in the movie to show the modern impact on Maori society, most of the obese people mentioned above smokes in the movie, and the camera shots seem to focus on the smoke for an added effect. Visuals like this are more dramatic, easier to recognize and creates a stronger overall impression. For much the same reason, the movie chose to use the whales in the story, since the seeing the image of whales dying makes the scene much more effective. Emotions in characters are also widely used in the film, because close up shots can capture the emotion and display it to audiences much easier than words. Music also plays a great role extending the meanings of a scene. Sad music is used a lot in the film, to create a very serene death like atmosphere that builds in strength until it reaches the climax with the whales beaching. All of these various effects in the movie helped strength the fact that there is a problem within the Maori society.

The adaptation of the film Whale Rider into the film medium relied on the creation of new scenes, images, sounds and texts to carry through its message to the audience. While maintaining the same theme with the book, the film used vivid imagery and sad soundtracks to emphasize the slow decadence of Maori society. The addition of these film features to a novel story truly enhanced the experience from the book. In the end, the film experience was different from the book, but just as much if not more spectacular.