With her special powers, Kahu fulfills the prophecy of Kahutia Te Rangi’s last spear, which represents Maori people’s unique connection to the past and the beings that surround them, both human and otherwise. According to the legend, after riding the ancient whale to New Zealand’s shores, Kahutia Te Rangi threw a series of spears, which transformed into plants and animals when they struck the ground and turned a barren region into a lush, fertile coastline. But the last spear never landed—instead, it has kept flying for centuries, saving its rejuvenating power for a time when the Maori people truly need it. It’s a blessing from the ancestors, an enduring connection between the past and present. This story of the last spear helps unite the region’s people around a shared identity and orientation toward the future by promising that some messianic figure will come to save them from their ills—including the violence of colonization and the erosion of Maori culture.
At the end of the novel, the old mother whale realizes that Kahu is not the original Kahutia Te Rangi and suggests that she is the last spear instead. The ancient whale agrees, and so they return Kahu to land, saving her life. Kahu has fulfilled the prophecy of the last spear by saving the whales—which also meant saving her community. (After all, Koro Apirana characterized the whales’ beaching as a test of whether his people are fulfilling their obligation to the world, Gods, and ancestors.) In return, the story of the last spear saves Kahu, so if Kahu is the ancestors’ gift to the Maori , then the prophecy of the last spear is their gift to Kahu herself.
The Last Spear Quotes in The Whale Rider
So the whale rider uttered a prayer over the wooden spear, saying, “Let this spear be planted in the years to come, for there are sufficient spear [sic] already implanted. Let this be the one to flower when the people are troubled and it is most needed.”
And the spear then leaped from his hands with gladness and soared through the sky. It flew across a thousand years. When it hit the earth, it did not change but waited for another hundred and fifty years to pass until it was needed. The flukes of the whale stroked majestically at the sky.
I thought I saw something flying through the air, across the aeons, to plunge into the heart of the village.
A dark shadow began to ascend from the deep. Then there were other shadows rising, ever rising. Suddenly the first shadow breached the surface and I saw it was a whale. Leviathan. Climbing through the depths. Crashing through the skin of sea. And as it came, the air was filled with streaked lightning and awesome singing.
Koro Apirana gave a tragic cry, for this was no ordinary beast, no ordinary whale. This whale came from the past. As it came, it filled the air with its singing.
Karanga mai, karanga mai,
karanga mai.
The Last Spear Symbol Timeline in The Whale Rider
