Humans and Nature
The Whale Rider follows a prominent Maori family during a time of deep cultural, political, and ecological crisis for their New Zealand community of Whangara. By traditional inheritance rules, a young girl named Kahu will grow up to become the chief of the village, but the current chief, her great-grandfather Koro Apirana, thinks no woman could ever do the job. Still, Koro Apirana knows that only the right leader can save the Maori…
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Maori Identity
As one of the first prominent novels by a Maori writer, The Whale Rider helped win global recognition for the Maori people’s ongoing struggle against colonization. It also played an important role in the domestic cultural revival movement now known as the Maori Renaissance. But Ihimaera’s novel wasn’t just part of this revival—it also makes a powerful case for it. Ihimaera uses the Maori language extensively throughout The Whale Rider, including for human-to-whale communication…
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Gender and Power
At its core, The Whale Rider is about a conflict over gender roles. Koro Apirana refuses to treat Kahu as a future chief of their New Zealand village, Whangara, simply because she is a girl and he believes that the job is for men only. Readers quickly learn that Kahu is far more perceptive, intelligent, and invested in Maori culture than any boy in Whangara, but this doesn’t make any difference: for Koro Apirana…
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Familial Love
Beyond its complex engagement with Maori history and New Zealand identity, The Whale Rider is also a simple testament to the power of familial love. The novel centers on the Apiranas family, who constantly disagree with one another and sometimes even get into days-long arguments. (In fact, Nanny Flowers threatens to divorce Koro Apirana nearly every day.) Yet they never lose sight of the things that bind them together, including their common goals, distinguished ancestors…
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