Critically Reflection On The Film Whale Rider By Niki Caro

Analysis of the Necessity of Cultural Changes as Depicted in the Film Whale Rider
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The film "Whale Rider" by Niki Varo talks about the struggles of a Maori girl named Kahu Paikea Apirana, ”Pai” for short, by trying to defy the odds of cultural traditions while expressing her own preferences to emphasize the needed change of moral equity in their community. There was emphasis in this film that there are circumstances that challenging tradition is the only way for tradition to survive. But how can one save a culture by defying it?
In the movie, a patrilineal succession of tribe authority was established in the community of Pai. This was due to the appearance of the legendary ancestor who found their land by using whales for transportation; “The Whale Rider” named “Paikea” established a community where the tribe chief should be a direct male descendant of the Whale Rider. Therefore, women do not qualify in the inheritance of the position of chief. The current chief of the tribe is Pai's grandfather, Koro, and wanted his son, Porourangi which is Pai's father to be the next village chief but Porourangi refused and went to Germany to fulfil his dreams as an artist. However, Pai wanted to become village chief and there starts her struggles. This is in direct accordance to the ethnocentric teachings of Davis (2003), imploring the notion where he stated that “change is no threat to culture." Added by Davis (2003), change is the only thing that is constant in human beings. This re-establishes the culture will not be destroyed by refusing to comply with the norms but to accept that changes are needed to match the ravaging forces of time that threatened the existence of a culture. According to Davis (2003), “Now these external threats have many faces....