Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Whale Rider, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humans and Nature
Maori Identity
Gender and Power
Familial Love
Summary
Analysis
Koro Apirana also blames Nanny Flowers for choosing the name Kahu, which makes him furious because it’s short for the village’s male founder, Kahutia Te Rangi. He finds this disrespectful, but he constantly thinks Nanny Flowers disrespects him, particularly when she talks about her own tribe and her ancestor Muriwai. Muriwai was a woman who saved her people from a shipwreck by praying, becoming a man, and piloting their canoe.
Koro Apirana finds Kahu’s name distasteful because it directly links her to the same tradition of hereditary male leadership that he represents. Again, he considers gender equality a form of disrespect, even when it’s rooted in Maori tradition (like the story of Muriwai). This suggests that his desire for male dominance may be more about misogyny than tradition.
Themes
Nanny Flowers tells Rawiri—but not Koro Apirana—that Rehua chose the name Kahu. Her labor was difficult, and Rehua thought she might die. She is from Nanny Flowers’s tribe, so she chose a name that would link the child to her husband’s tribe, too.
Koro Apirana is angry at Nanny Flowers because he thinks that she chose Kahu’s name specifically to defy him. In reality, Kahu’s mother Rehua chose the name, and she did so not to provoke Koro Apirana but rather to solidify her daughter’s link to him. It’s noteworthy that Nanny Flowers doesn’t tell Koro Apirana the truth. Perhaps she wants to protect Rehua or the people of her tribe; or perhaps she thinks that defending Kahu’s name is more important than identifying who chose it.
Themes
Rehua wants Kahu’s umbilical cord buried in Whangara. But Koro Apirana refuses to help, so Rawiri takes Nanny Flowers on his motorcycle to the airport, where they get the umbilical cord from an aunt. Nanny Flowers and the aunt cry. Back in the village, Nanny Flowers buries Kahu’s umbilical cord near a statue of Kahutia Te Rangi riding a whale. She tells Rawiri and the other men present that they are the guardians of Kahu’s secret, but later, she whispers that Kahu will change Koro Apirana’s mind when she grows up. Looking at the statue of Kahutia Te Rangi in the moonlight, Rawiri sees a flying spear and hears a whale’s song. The chapter ends with the chant, “Hui e, haumi e, taiki e. / Let it be done.”
The umbilical cord represents Kahu’s ties to her ancestors, and burying it is an important Maori tradition. But Koro Apirana refuses to participate because he doesn’t want to recognize her as his legitimate descendant (and the legitimate heir to the chieftainship). But Nanny Flowers insists that Kahu deserves the same dignity as a male child. This passage especially highlights the connection between Kahu and Kahutia Te Rangi, her ancestor and namesake.
Themes
