Paka's Gender Roles In Whale Rider

During the film whale rider, we see the characters, Paka and Pai. Paka, growing up the way he did, follows every rule that their tradition has, whereas Pai, being born into the modern world, wants the maori people to think more progressively. At first, Paka is blind to Pai’s ability to be the chief, he is harsh and strict towards Pai. However his intentions are good and everything he does is out of respect and fear for his culture.
Paka’s outdated beliefs of his culture, place strict expectations on his granddaughter. Which causes him to be blind to her leadership skills and potential. Paka believes he knows best, he is constantly forcing his beliefs on others as he doesn’t want his traditions and culture to be lost. Paka has been brought
Pai is born into a family that thinks strongly of leadership and has great respect for their culture. Born to be a leader, Pai tries really hard to prove to her grandfather that she can lead the tribe. Despite being confined by sexism and gender roles, Pai persists and shows great determination. This is a skill that would be exceedingly useful to lead a tribe yet Paka cannot see this. When Pai is born, her twin brother dies during birth, but Pai survives, she is a survivor. Consequently, this means Pai has many difficult expectations to fulfil, nevertheless she takes on this challenge with a positive attitude, working hard to win Paka’s approval. When Pai survives her birth, it symbolizes that she has always been a survivor thus proving that she clearly lived for a reason and it was to lead the tribe. Taking a different approach to leadership, Pai manages to make the whales stop beaching themselves. This strongly suggests that the maori people could undoubtedly benefit from Pai’s leadership skills, but this can only happen if Paka could recognise her true potential. Pai’s potential is clear to the rest of her family, but for some reason Paka is stuck in ways and will not acknowledge the effort Pai has put into becoming the Maori peoples next
Paka does not see this as he has strict leadership ideas, he tries his best to ignore her, motivating Pai to try harder. Pai has all the qualities to succeed as a chief, especially determination, the only thing stopping her from showing her true potential is Paka and his old traditional views. However, Paka starts thinking more progressively after Pai grabs his attention by risking her life for the tribe. He apologizes and they overcome their differences, Pai becomes the chief and they help the tribe work