The Whale Rider

An ancient bull whale is leading his herd in a great migration. They travel past The Valdes Peninsula, Patagonia. The ancient whale and the elderly female whales sing their whale songs and guide the herd. As they swim, “the ancient bull whale was swept up in memories of his own birthing” (11). He laments over the day he first met his human master while crying over his mother’s death in Hawaiki: “The human had heard the young whale’s distress and had come into the sea, playing a flute” (11). In his attempt to “communicate his oneness with the young whale’s mourning” (11), the man played sad songs. The young bull whale stayed with the human while his herd moved on. The whale would come to him every time the man played his flute. In the present time, whenever the ancient bull whale hears a flute, he attempts to jump out of the water like when he was young. For the elderly females, however, the song of the flute—the “rhapsody of adolescence” (11)—signifies their leader’s desire to take the herd to the dangerous islands in the south-west.

Our narrator, Rawiri, speaks of Kahu, the one that was “there at the end” and whose “intervention perhaps saved us all” (12). Everyone in the tribe knows such a child would be born one day, yet no one pays any attention when Kahu is born. Rawiri’s parents, Koro Apirana, the tribe’s leader, and Nanny Flowers, receive news that Porourangi, Rawiri’s brother, and his wife, Rehua, have given birth to a baby girl. Koro Apirana is angered and devastated by this news, as a new baby girl breaks the male line of descent. Contrastingly, Nanny Flowers does not care whether the child is a boy or a girl; she is just relieved to hear from her son. She catches a glimpse of Koro Apirana pulling his dinghy into the water, which he does when he needs to clear his head. He pretends not to hear his wife when she calls, causing Nanny Flowers to chase after him. More intelligent and resourceful, Nanny Flowers grabs the motorboat and easily catches Koro Apirana. They insult one another all afternoon, much to Rawiri and the boys’ amusement. Eventually, Koro Apirana surrenders.

Rawiri tells the reader that this fateful day happened eight years ago. In hindsight, Rawiri understands that Koro Apirana cannot resolve Kahu’s birth with his traditional beliefs about male Maori leadership: “By Maori custom, leadership was hereditary and normally the mantle of mana fell from the eldest son to the eldest son. Except in this case, there was an eldest daughter” (13). Koro Apirana stays hopeful that Porourangi will have a boy soon. In the meantime, he completely ignores any conversation about Kahu. Nanny Flowers becomes angry with her husband’s behavior and bad-mouths him to Rawiri while kneading dough. As she becomes more and more distraught, the dough begins to cry for help. She relays that she should have listened to her mother and married Waari over the hill. Koro Apirana overhears, and the two get into another fight. Rawiri recalls, “No sooner was I out the door when the battle began. You coward, said the dough as I ducked” (13-14).

Fighting over a divorce is nothing compared to Koro Apirana and Nanny Flowers’s fight when Porourangi says he’d like to name his daughter Kahu. Koro Apirana is infuriated that his wife permits Porourangi to name his child after their tribe’s founder. He believes that naming a girl after the tribe’s founder belittles Kahutia Te Rangi. Rawiri writes that Nanny Flowers was always stepping out of line: “Even though she had married into our tribe she always made constant reference to her ancestor, Muriwai” (15). Muriwai traveled to New Zealand on the Mataatua canoe. When her chieftain brothers inspected the land, Muriwai realized that the sea was growing and would surely swallow all of the men. She prayed, asking permission from the gods “to give her the right and open the way for her to take charge” (15). She yelled, “Now I shall make myself a man!” (15). She calmed the sea and saved her entire village. Koro Apirana tells Nanny Flowers that her ancestor’s story does not give her the right to name a girl after his ancestor.

However, it is not Nanny Flowers who wants to name the child Kahu, but Rehua, Kahu’s mother and Porourangi’s wife. There were complications during the delivery, resulting in a c-section. Rehua was left weak and frightened. She declares that should she die, her firstborn will be connected to her father’s people and land. Subsequently, Rehua requests that the birth cord be buried on the Marae in Nanny’s village. On Friday, Nanny Flowers and Rawiri ride into town to meet his aunt and collect the birth cord. Nanny Flowers places the birth cord in sight of Kahutia Te Rangi so that he may watch over Kahu and so that the sea from which he came will always protect her. She tells Rawiri that knowing the location of her birth cord makes him Kahu’s guardian. Rawiri sees a light flash through the air as if a small spear had flown over them.