The Whale Rider

The Whale Rider is a film mainly about a little girl who grows up with her grandmother and grandfather in a broken tribe. Her father left after the girl’s mother and twin brother died during her birth. The grandfather resented the girl at first because she was not a boy but still loved her although he would not let her do the things boys were supposed to do. When the girl tried to fix the boat motor and participate in sacred teachings of the tribe, the grandfather yelled at her and told her that she could not do these things. The girl secretly watched the tribal teachings that she was not allowed to attend and learned how to fight by her uncle teaching her. When she beat a boy in the tribe with the “sticks” her grandfather told her that she ruined everything and sent her away to live with someone else. When the grandfather took the boys on the boat for a final test, none of them could come up with his whale tooth. He was disappointed and spent days in bed. One day the girl and her uncle, with some of his friends, went out in the water looking for food and the girl asked where her grandfather had thrown the tooth. She dove in to get it and stayed down in the water for a long time causing her uncle to jump in to look for her. She came up behind the boat with her grandfather’s whale tooth and a lobster! The girl’s uncle showed it to his mother and the mother said that the grandfather was not ready to see this because it meant that the girl was the prophet.  When the girl invited her grandfather to her school play where she had dedicated a speech for him, he did not show up and she cried while making her speech. However, the reason that he did not show up is because whales had washed up on the shore and he was trying to save them. The girl had called them because apparently they did not hear her grandfather. The tribe spend all night trying to save the whales and when a huge whale washed onto the shore the grandfather said that if they got him back in the water the others would follow. He did not want the girl to help because he said she had did enough already. They could not get the whale back in the water and the tribe got tired and needed to rest. The girl went down to the water and climbed on the back of the big whale and the whale amazingly got back into the water with the girl on her back. The family screamed for the girl but she said that she was not afraid to die. The girl did not die however, she was put in the hospital and when she awoke her grandfather was by her side with his whale tooth around her neck that the grandmother had given him when the girl left on the whales back. It then cut to a scene where the tribe was together in what seemed like a ritualistic ceremony and in the end it was the girl that brought the tribe back together.
                Thinking in relation to my understanding violence class, it is a theme of violence that occurs in the movie. The violence that occurred mostly is institutional and structural violence. The violence was institutional in the family because family is one social institution. This was mainly by the grandfather because he may not have accused the girl physically, but abused her mentally and emotionally causing her to question what was wrong with her and to go sit on her father’s unfinished boat and cry. Structural violence can be found in the culture. Girls were not allowed to be involved in sacred teachings that boys experienced and her grandfather would not even let her help fix the broken boat motor. The girls grandfather yelled at her and made her feel guilty for wanting to participate in the rituals. Interpersonal violence may be seen in this film too in regards to the whales. The girl called the whales when they did not hear her grandfather. She thought she was wrong because she called them at the wrong time causing them to wash on shore and have some of them die although in the end it turned out that it may have been the correct time to call them. This film is a good example of violence that is not physical in an institutional or structural sense. But overall the film was a story that showed that although someone may not think you can do something, if you have it in your heart you can accomplish anything. If you haven’t seen this movie, I would highly recommend it.