Table of contentsFilm analysisConclusionWorks CitedFilm analysisColonization is recognized as having had a destructive effect on indigenous gender relations which extended to all spheres of indigenous society. The colonial system positioned indigenous women as the property of men with primarily domestic roles. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay Linda Tuhiwai Smith, in her Decolonization Methodologies, highlights that a key issue for Indigenous women in any policy challenge Contemporary indigenous is the restoration of women of what are considered to be their traditional roles, rights and responsibilities. In Niki Caro's film Whale Rider, Paikea asserts his right to be the leader of the tribe and, ultimately, his determined demands restore his rights and responsibilities. Paikea decolonizes the mind of her grandfather Koro who believes that women are not capable of leading a community. Colonialism recorded a distorted history of indigenous peoples. In this story, the important role played by indigenous women is overlooked. Representation is also about proposing solutions to real-life dilemmas that indigenous communities face and attempting to grasp the complexities of being indigenous. In this context, this article shows how the film represents the struggles and lives of indigenous peoples against the dominant society. Thus, this article argues that Niki Caro's Whale Rider is the testimony of a young Māori girl and that it also expresses the silenced stories of the film. Storytelling is so much a part of every culture and its literature, but this is especially true of indigenous peoples. . Linda Tuhiwai Smith, in her book Decolonizing Methodologies, states: “Indigenous languages, knowledge, and cultures have been silenced or distorted, ridiculed, or condemned in academic and popular discourses. » It is therefore up to indigenous peoples to represent themselves and make their culture heard by the world. This is why indigenous people tell their own stories; write their own versions, in their own way, for their own needs. It is not simply an oral story or a genealogical naming of a territory, but a very powerful need to bear witness and restore a spirit, to revive a fragmented and dying world. The film Whale Rider written and directed by Niki Caro is based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera, The Whale Rider, which tells the story of the Maori people. This article takes three concepts from Smith's decolonization methodologies and applies them to the selected works for study. The concepts are testimonies, effects of colonization in indigenous gender relations, contested histories and multiple discourses about the past by different communities. Testimonio, a Spanish term understood as “witness account,” embodies a narrative research methodology rooted in Latin American history. A testimony is a first-person account of the person (narrator) who has experienced instances of social and political inequality, oppression, or any specific form of marginalization. John Beverley, an expert on testimonial literature, suggests that the best way to approach subordinates is through testimonial literature. Testimonial literatures shift the balance between center and periphery, reconfiguring global cultural differences pushing the margins toward the center. According to Gugelberger, the situation of narration in testimonio mustimply an urgency to communicate, a problem of repression, poverty, subalternity, imprisonment, struggle for survival, etc. The testimonials should simply tell their own stories. The writings of indigenous people are called the “empire rewritten” and also become a record of their lives and cultures. Māori author Witi Ihimaera sees her writing as a valuable opportunity to express her experience of being Māori. He has assembled a five-volume anthology of Māori literature which he says represents the "crossroads". . . of a literature of a past and a literature of a present and a future”. Ihimaera was the first Māori author to publish both a book of short stories, Pounamu Pouramu (1972), and a novel Tangi (1973). Among his works, The Whale Rider is the novel most accepted by the Māori community. It is a magical and mythical work about a young girl whose relationship with a whale ensures the salvation of her village. It is based on an ancient story of the Whangara people of the east coast of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Unlike the novel which is told in the first and third person with the narrative voice of the girl's uncle, Niki Caro's film Whale Rider begins with Pai's narrative voice. The first-person narrative makes the film a testimony. The film implies an urgency to communicate and a problem of repression. Through testimonies, the voice of the voiceless is recorded. Pai says: Once, the earth felt a great void. He was waiting: he was waiting to be filled; waiting for someone to like him; while waiting for a leader. And he came on the back of a whale – a man to lead a new people. Our ancestor, Paikea. But now we were waiting for the firstborn of the new generation, the descendant of the whale hunter, the boy who would be the leader... There was no joy when I was born. My twin brother died and took our mother with him… Everyone was waiting for the firstborn to take us. But he is dead. And I didn't do it. Whale Rider depicts a young Pai girl's journey to becoming the leader of the community. It also describes the burden of Koro, Pai's grandfather, who seeks an answer to the question of who will be the next leader to head the community. The irony is that the leader is on his side but his narrow view of tradition and strict rules does not allow him to see the person who is supposed to be the leader. Not that he doesn't love his granddaughter, he does, Pai says: “My Koro wished in his heart that I had never been born. But he changed his mind." When it comes to leading the community, as someone who defends his tradition, he forbids Pai from attending the sacred school of learning in the Maori tradition. One One reason for Koro's state of mind could be the impact of colonialism on the history of indigenous peoples. Koro is perpetually mourning a lost tradition, his diminished community. When learning fails to meet his expectations for the emergence of a leader, Koro goes to bed bitter and disappointed. Paula Morris, in her review of the film, says: "For Koro, history is a burden to bear. and to pass on. For Pai, history is alive, it calls to him from the ocean. from the boat and asks her what she sees, Pai says, “Lots of little pieces of rope all twisted together.” Kora said, “It’s true. Weave together the threads of Paikea, so that our line remains strong. Each of your ancestors, all united and strong. Until your whale.” After telling this, Koro uses the rope to start the engine but it tears. Koro says, “Useless bloody rope.I'll get another one." Here the rope may be a metaphor for Pai herself as Koro views her granddaughter as useless and looks for the leader in other families. While his grandfather went to get another rope, Pai repaired the torn rope and started the engine. She runs the engine. This particular act of Pai predicts and becomes a symbol of the reconciliation of the torn community with their ancestors by becoming the leader. Koro is unable to see this gift from Pai. Pai communicates with the sea, the whales and his ancestors. She also finds the sacred whale tooth Koro threw her into the sea and asked the boys to find it but the boys couldn't get it. All of these events show Pai's innate potential to become a leader. She is not the chosen one according to her grandfather. In her school speech, her eyes filling with tears, she declared: “I was not the leader my grandfather expected.” She says that when she was born, she broke the line of elders. She also claims that “it wasn’t anyone’s fault. It happened like that. » She means that if the knowledge of the community is transmitted to everyone, there will be many leaders. She validates her point by affirming that if the elected official gets tired, others can intervene and help the community become strong again. According to Koro, Pai's twin brother is the chosen one but he is dead and she is not. His speech therefore calls into question the hierarchy that prevails in the learning of community knowledge. It attempts to broaden the narrow vision of the community. This is Pai's call to Koro: to give knowledge to everyone, not only to the chosen one but also regardless of gender. The effect of colonization on Indigenous gender relations is destructive. It affected all spheres of indigenous society. The colonial system positioned indigenous women as the property of men with primarily domestic roles. Smith, in her Decolonization Methodologies, highlights that a key issue for Aboriginal women in the face of any challenge in contemporary Aboriginal policy is the restoration for women of what are seen as their traditional roles, rights and responsibilities. Smith also says that Māori women are caught between the written accounts of white writers and the claims of the few Māori women who dispute these early accounts. She gives examples of this, one of which is the view of Elsdon Best who says of his research with the Tuhoe tribe: "As in most other barbarian lands, we find that women were considered here as inferior to man.” The other is Rangimarie. The views of Rose Pere, herself a descendant of Tuhoe Potiki, says: “As a woman, I was exposed to very positive female role models from both my natural parents' lineages. The older men and women...have clearly shown, from the legacy they have left, that men and women, adults and children, work side by side and together. are wrongly portrayed by Western researchers. Indigenous women must challenge these false claims. Therefore, the daunting task for Māori women seeking to reconstruct traditional roles is to challenge existing knowledge that is primarily ideological or false (Smith 170). In the movie Whale Rider, we have Pai's grandmother who is of Muriwai's lineage. She tells Pai that she should be proud of her Muriwai blood. Despite Koro's strict rules, Pai does his best to learn the traditions of his community. She learns to use “taiha” from her uncle. She claims her genealogical right to be the leader of the community and, in the end, her determined demands restore herrights and responsibilities as community leader. Koro, after Pai rescued the whales, said to him: “Wise leader, forgive me. I'm just a novice when it comes to flying. We can say that Pai decolonizes the spirit of his grandfather Koro who believes that only men are allowed to access chieftaincy and that women are not capable of leading a community. Like Muriwai, the heroine who participated in traditional women's roles in the past, Pai reconstructs traditional roles in the present. Thus, the process of decolonization involves a critical engagement with the colonial past. The idea of ​​contested histories and multiple discourses about the past, by different communities, is closely linked to the politics of everyday contemporary Indigenous life. It is an integral part of the fabric of communities that value oral modes of knowledge. These contested narratives are stored in genealogies, in the landscape, in weavings and sculptures, and even in the personal names that many people bore. The means by which these stories were stored was through their knowledge systems. Many of these systems have since been reclassified as oral traditions rather than stories. In the film, there is only slight mention of Muriwai, the heroine of the Moari community, but Paikea, the male hero, is mentioned fully and the image of Paikea riding a whale is depicted in a sculpture . Muriwai's story is sidelined in the film. This shows the extent to which the politics of representation exist within the Māori community. Niki Caro is a non-Maori New Zealander. When it comes to reporting on unfamiliar communities, Niki Caro says that by being on the ground with people, she was able to discover the truth and beauty of a culture. Regarding the rendering of Maori in Whale Rider, Niki Caro says: "I am absolutely in service of the truth of the story." Although Niki Caro seems to be faithful to the original story, it fails to showcase Muriwai's story. For example, Paikea's story is told at the very beginning of the film but not Muriwai's. The Myth of Muriwai – “Act Like a Male” – Muriwai was the greatest leader of Pai's grandmother's Nanny Flowers tribe. Mihi Kotukutuku, known as a model of female nonconformity, is a descendant of Muriwai. Thus, in both myth and history, we can see the active role of women but it is not taken into account by the male-dominated indigenous society. In the film, Pai defies tradition and embraces the forgotten past to find the strength to lead his people forward. The film ends with Pai's hopeful narrative voice: “My name is Paikea Apirana and I come from a long line of chiefs that extends all the way back to the whale rider. I am not a prophet, but I know that our people will continue to move forward together, with all their strength.” Upasana Tayal states: "Unlike other films starring Māori, Whale Rider ends on a surprisingly positive note" (Review). Pai tells his own story. She becomes the representative of the heroine Muriwai. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Conclusion In conclusion, Niki Caro, although a foreigner, tries to be part of the community. and represents the genesis, function and implications of Māori ritual beliefs and the role of women in the world and also in the indigenous community of an increasingly westernized New Zealand. The film reveals the functioning of patriarchy in so-called matriarchal indigenous communities. Thus, this article shows how the film recreates the struggles, complexities and lives of indigenous peoples., 2002.