Symbolism In Whale Rider

Niki Caro has used symbols in her movie Whale Rider (2002) to explore ideas by using elements to express a certain feeling, instead of getting the actor to show the feeling through words. The movie Whale Rider follows a young girl named Paikea living in a small Maori coastal town in New Zealand. It is about the challenges Paikea faces being a girl and how this affects her relationship with her grandfather. This essay discusses three symbols that Niki Caro has used in her film. These includes; Koro’s staff, the Waka (Paikea’s father’s boat) and the sea. All of these symbols are part of a common theme; hope.

One of the symbols Caro has used to explore the idea of letting go and leadership is Koro’s staff. The act of leadership is represented through Koro’s staff because whenever there is a social event or when he goes to teach at the school, he is carrying it with him. As you watch the movie the staff begins to become familiar and there are also engravings on the stick and this adds to its obviously important demeanor. Through the continuous usage of the staff and the marks established on it, the viewer can understand that he carries the staff as the leader. Koro’s staff also represents letting go. This can be seen in the scene were he runs over to the Whale dropping the staff in the ocean and Koro is not
When Pai is in concerts and whenever something occurs like a festival, the Ocean is usually always in the background as a reminder of their cultural roots. Pai and her grandfather are seen in the Waka at the end of the movie and the boat is only used for special occasions and one can gather that when the leader is picked they go on the boat, as it is a tradition. A way that Caro explores the past is through the ocean. This is seen whenever Pai communicates to the Whale. This explores the past as the Whale Rider before her would have somehow communicated with the