An Interview with The Whale Rider Author, Witi Ihimaera

Award-winning New Zealand writer Witi Ihimaera (The Matriarch, Tangi) was inspired to write Whale Rider in 1985 while living in an apartment in New York overlooking the Hudson River. The sight of a whale spouting on the river in 1985 reminded Ihimaera of his people's legend, and led to his story about young Paikea and her grandfather, Koro. The Whale Rider story reworks the legend of his tribe at Whangara. It tells how their ancestor, Paikea, arrived at the East Coast on the back of a mighty whale.

As part of this exclusive interview for Pacific Islanders in Communications, Mr. Ihimaera read aloud the first paragraph of Te Kaieke Tohora, the Maori language version of Whale Rider. You can see the Maori language, hear how it sounds, read its literal translation, and compare that to the English version by clicking on the "See and Hear the Book in Maori" link at the top of the page.

Q: Your book and the film have had universal appeal around the globe. What is it that you think makes the story such a success across cultures, countries, and ages?

A: The film and the book are about a young girl who faces a number of cultural challenges while trying to find her own sovereignty. People from around the world have written me letters and e-mails and telephoned me — Jewish men from New York who say that's the story of myself and my grandfather, or a boy from China who says from now on I will honor my sister more than I did in the past, from young indigenous women, from young women from England, from second sons, from first sons, and from a young Arabic woman who says thank you very much for giving me the courage to be able to see what I can do about the position of women in my society. I think that the book and the film create universal resonances in everyone.

Q: How does the book differ from the film?

A: The film was an exceptional piece of work, and I am so honored that a Director like Niki Caro, and that Keisha Castle-Hughes, who is the young actress who played the main role, could create such a luminous and extraordinary characterization. The book is a different experience; the people who see the film… when they read the book, will find a piece of work that provides them with a little bit more of the originating myth on which the film is based.

Q. Whale Rider is based on a particular Maori legend. Is it a tribal story?

A: I wrote Whale Rider based on a particular legend and that legend was of our ancestor, Paikea, who was male, who was one of the royal sons of Hawaiki who came to New Zealand on the back of a whale. So it's a specific tribal story that applies only to Whangara and to the Maori people of the North Island or the out areas of New Zealand. I think all writers must try to create new methods out of old methods or to renew the stories so that they have more relevance. What I did was that I subverted the original (legend) so that instead of a male riding a whale, it would be a young female riding a whale. That (legend) was a particular story for that particular era to affirm the nature of the Maori voyage, and that one needed to have courage to maintain one's identity. Today, it is so important to recognize that the world has indeed changed, but it takes time for tradition to be dismantled.

Q: Tell us about Paikea's spiritual connection with the whales…

A: The people of Whangara have always had this special relationship with whales. The whales in the book make a journey, and the journey that they make is the journey of the Southern Right whale from their cradle off the coast of South America through Hawaiian waters down to Easter Island in Tahiti on their way to Antarctica via New Zealand. The whale's story is just as important in the film as the human story because the whales have a dilemma as well, to find a way of maintaining their survival within a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous. So ultimately, the novel is about trying to find a home and trying to find a safe place. So there is a large conservation message in the book.

Q: What would you like an American audience to know that they might not understand from reading the book?

A: Every book that an author writes is kind of like a time capsule and we want our work to last. To me, such as in The Whale Rider — what I would want to last — is that leadership does come from surprising places and that leadership should not be restrictive or inhibited by fixed race or gender or country or nationality or religion. And, that we have a really major concern with the way in which we are looking after our environment. The whales can tell us because they are being affected. What we are doing is wrong, and we need to listen to them.

Q: What is the one thing that you want readers or viewers to come away with after reading the book or seeing the film?

A: That, regardless of tradition and the way that society endeavors to make you conform or disempowers you — that you must always strive to seek your dream and never let go of who you are, what you want to do, where you want to be, how you want to get there and what you want to find when you reach that destiny.

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