The Whale Rider

A jogger witnesses a large herd of whales advancing toward the beach. All along the shore, whales are willingly stranding themselves. It does not take long for reporters to reach the scene of this odd occurrence, as the whales are taking their own lives. One particular image, Rawiri recalls, stays with people to this very day. A camera “zooms in on one of the whales, lifted high onto the beach by the waves. A truck has been driven down beside the whale. The whale is on its side, and blood is streaming from its mouth. The whale is still alive” (54). A man is seen standing triumphantly by the whale. He smiles at the camera and then severs the jaw from the whale’s body with a chainsaw. Some may have argued that a stranded whale was a gift from the gods and thus could be used however the Maori people desired. Yet, many felt compassion toward the beasts who had once been man’s companion.

Kahu is eight years old when the whales strand themselves. Porourangi and Koro Apirana are away on the South Island, where they remain stranded due to inclement weather. Koro Apirana says to Rawiri that these whales are a sign, not a particularly good one. Nanny Flowers and Rawiri decide to hide the news from Kahu out of fear she may interfere and endanger her life. To help the whales, Rawiri gathers his boys, and the group rides their motorcycles to Wainui. Eventually, the police arrive, forcing everyone to vacate the beach. Rawiri recalls, “All of us who were there that day and night will be forever bonded by our experience with the stranded whales. They were tightly bunched and they were crying like babies” (56). Despite valiant efforts to protect each whale, the beasts “were like confused children” (56), fighting every attempt at saving their lives. By evening, every single whale is dead.

When Rawiri returns, Nanny Flowers tells him that Kahu heard about the stranded herd of whales. He finds Kahu sitting by the sea, making her whale noises but receiving no response. Koro Apirana’s words that these whales are a sign flash in Rawiri’s mind.

No news teams capture what occurs the following evening in Whangara. Nanny Flowers, Kahu, and Rawiri watch the weather anxiously as they wait at the airport for Koro Apirana and Porourangi to return. The weather worsens as they drive home from the airport, and they pass by large machines digging mass graves for the whales. Rawiri recalls that “even before we reached Wainui Beach we could smell and taste the Goddess of Death” (59). Koro Apirana runs out of the car and stares at the whale carcasses yelling, “Where lies the blame?” (60). The seagulls “caught his words within their claws and screamed and echoed the syllables overhead” (60).

A luminous cloud has centered itself over Whangara. While the group helps carry in luggage, Kahu freezes. Gazing out to sea, a wave of acceptance washes over her face, and she appears very calm. Then suddenly, “there was a dull booming from beneath the water, like a giant door opening a thousand years ago” (60). A dark shadow ascends from the deep, accompanied by hundreds of other shadows. The air is filled with lightning and singing as the herd approaches. Koro Apirana gives a cry as he sees what lay upon the ancient bull whale’s head: The sacred sign, “a swirling tattoo, flashing its power across the darkening sky” (61). The village quickly meets at the meeting house, and Koro Apirana denies the women entrance, as this is sacred work. Nanny Flowers then has the women gather in her dining room, where they devise their own plan and wait to help the men if needed. Nanny Flowers warns her husband that both she and Kahu will be like Muriwai and turn into men if they have to.

The giant bull whale has hurled itself into the land and crawled higher than all the others, preparing itself for death. Some elderly whales lay next to him, singing and trying to encourage him to swim back out to sea. No one was prepared for the beast’s size, almost twenty meters long. Koro Apirana approaches the whale and asks if it wishes to live or die. The whale responds that the decision lies in his hands. Then, Koro Apirana calls the meeting that prompts Nanny Flowers to assemble all the women. The men are in the meeting house, and the women are in Nanny’s dining room. Kahu looks out to the sea, making mewling noises. Koro begins to talk philosophy to unify the men and develop a plan. He tells how the world once was, where the Gods talked to their ancestors and men with the Gods. God, man, and beast lived in communion. Then, man decided that he was better than the Gods. He drove a wedge into the original oneness of existence. Koro Apirana proclaims,

In the passing of Time he divided the world into that half he could believe in and that half he could not believe in. The real and the unreal. The natural and supernatural. The present and the past. The scientific and fantastic. He put a barrier between both worlds and everything on his side was called rational and everyone on the other side was called irrational (62-63).

He then mentions the ancient whale with the sacred tattoo. He asks, “Does it belong in the real world or the unreal world?” (63). He concludes that it is part of both worlds, a reminder of the oneness lost centuries ago. He says that if they have forgotten that communion, they have ceased to be Maori. Koro Apirana interprets the whale as a sign, or rather, a test. If they return it safely to sea, then they will affirm that man still believes in the oneness.

Rawiri and his friend Bill go out to sea to tie the rope around the whale’s tail so they may turn him around and push him face-first into the sea. The boys successfully tie the rope around the whale’s tail, and the group prays while they wait for the tide to come. The tide comes in quicker than expected, and by the time Rawiri returns from changing into dry clothes, the whale is already half-submerged. The tractors begin to position the whale to be pushed face-first into the water. The whale speaks to Koro Apirana, “Do you wish to live?” He replies in the affirmative, telling the whale to return to his kingdom of Tangaroa (65). But while turning the whale, the ropes snap. The whale moves, not toward the sea, but toward the people, “With a terrifying guttural moan the whale sought deeper water where we could not reach it. It is death” (65). Koro Apirana tells Kahu that their ancestor wants to die because there is no longer any place for it to exist in this world. He tells her that with its death, they too will die. The herd begins a mournful song of farewell to their leader.

No one sees Kahu slowly disappear into the water until the truck lights flash on her. Rawiri is the first to notice and instantly runs in after her. Rawiri knows that all Kahu can grasp her mind around is that “if the whale lives, we live” (67). The rain comes down like spears from the sky as Kahu swims purposefully towards the whale with the sacred tattoo. As Kahu approaches the whale, “she suddenly remembered what she should do” (67). Meanwhile, on the shore, panic ensues as Koro Apirana and Nanny Flowers must be held back from throwing themselves into the water.

Rawiri hears Kahu’s voice, a “high treble voice shouting something to the sea. She was singing to the whale. Telling it to acknowledge her coming” (67). Simultaneously, “The wind snatched at her words and flung them with the foam to smash in the wind” (67). Kahu calls out to the ancestor whale and says, “I am Kahu. Ki Kahutia Te Rangi ahau” (67). The whale’s eyes flicker. A wave knocks Kahu over, and the whale offers her its fin, calling her “Ko Paikea” (68). The whale “felt such a surge of gladness which, as it mounted, became ripples of ecstasy ever increasing” (68). Rawiri notices that the whale has begun to right itself and spots Kahu kissing and stroking the whale. As Kahu holds the whale, she sees “indentations like footholds and handholds” appearing before her (69). As she mounts the whale, she looks back at her family on the shore and begins to weep. She becomes overwhelmed as she thinks of her love for her family and what it will be like to die. “Let us return to the sea,” Kahu cries (69). She proclaims that the people will live.

Kahu is deep at sea among the herd of whales. The ancestor whale goes deeper with each dive, allowing Kahu time to adjust. It became clear that the next dive “would be forever” (71). She braces herself and bids farewell to the sky and the land. She yells out once more to her Maori tribe and her Paka. She wants her family “to live forever and ever” (71). A cavity appears on the whale’s back the size of her face. She realizes that the cavity is there so she may breathe underwater while the whale swims. Kahu prepares herself for the final dive.

The storm leaves with Kahu. On the beach, everyone is weeping. Nanny Flowers gives Koro Apirana the carved stone he had cast into the water that none of the boys could fetch. She yells Kahu’s name into the sea, and Koro Apirana realizes his grave mistake.

The whales travel back to their kingdom. The old mother whale notices a girl on her husband’s back. He tells her it is Ko Paikea, his lord. The other female whales become intrigued and begin to nudge Kahu. The old mother whale knows of her husband’s faults and that he had become depressed revisiting the places of his memory. Then in her own memory, “she saw Paikea himself and he was flinging small spears seaward and landward” (74-75). She tells the herd to halt because she wishes to speak with her husband. She tells the bull whale that the rider he is carrying is not Paikea. The herd gasps at the old mother whale’s audacity. She argues that the rider appears to be a human girl and prompts him to look ever further into the depths of his memory. The bull whale thinks back to his master throwing spears into the sky. He begins to observe that the rider seems smaller in stature. The old mother tells him that this is the last spear—the one that “was to flower in the future” (76). The ancestor whale thinks back to Paikea’s words when he threw the last spear. It was to help the world when it needed help the most in the form of a female child. As the ancient bull whale remembers, he “began to lose his nostalgia for the past and to put his thoughts to the present and the future. Surely, in the tidal waves of Fate, there must have been a reason for his living so long” (76). He begins to understand, knowing now that his fate and the fate of this child were intertwined. The ancient whale declares that they must return the human girl to the surface so that she may complete her task.

After Kahu leaves, Nanny Flowers collapses and is taken to the hospital. Five days later, she awakes to see Koro Apirana, Rawiri, and the boys. Koro Apirana tells Nanny Flowers what happened to Kahu, revealing that she is sitting unconscious in the next room. Kahu was thought to be dead, but one day, her body was found in a sea of kelp guarded by dolphins. She was rushed to the hospital and declared to be in a coma. Koro Apirana says that Kahu and Nanny Flowers have been mates for each other from the very start, “just like in the vegetable garden” (77). Nanny demands that her bed be pushed next to Kahu’s and that Rawiri and the boys leave her and Koro Apirana alone to talk. Koro Apirana blames himself for what happened to Kahu and for not understanding her true identity sooner. He tells Nanny Flowers that she should divorce him and marry old Waari over the hill. Suddenly, Kahu sighs and complains that her grandparents are always fighting.

The whales are rising from the sea, and the ancient whale asks if the rider lived. The old mother whale assures him that the rider is alive and safe. The ancient bull whale proclaims, “Then let everyone live, and let the partnership between land and sea, whales and all humankind, also remain” (78). The herd rejoices as they know their tribe will live on through Kahu.