Whale Rider

Since I recently got a program to download just about any movie that I want, I kind of went crazy downloading some movies recently. I have been wanting to watch the movie 'Whale rider' for a long time, so I decided to watch that as one of my Language in the community writings. This movie is about a girl named Paikea who grows up in New Zealand. When she is born, her twin brother passes aways, who was supposed to be the next chief of their Maori village. In the Maori culture, as in most, it is supposed to be a male who takes over the tribe. Paikea's grandfather is not very fond of her because he does not want her to be his heir. He therefore begins to train other boys to see who will be the best candidate for the next ruler of the tribe. However, since Paikea is destined to be chief, she has the gift of being able to speak and communicate with the whales.

THis is the first form of communication that stood out to me, the non verbal communication. In the movie she communicates to the whales spiritually in most cases. IT is almost a form a telepathy that is portrayed in the movie. But even when she is communicating through the whales in her mind, she still uses chants. What I drew from this observation was that in the maori culture, religion plays a very large role in language. THis was also shown in the other verbal dances and chants that were performed throughout the movie. Much of the actual language and words that are commonly used in their language are related to religion in one way or another. THis is something that seems to be a consistent trend across pacific island cultures. Religion is very much incorporated into their language use, and almost has a category of its own in pacific island languages.

One of the most common uses of actual verbal language between people in this movie are through chants. The chants are in the form of the Haka's, and Hura's. WHen the native Maori language is used, it is often times used very aggressively, and seemingly war-like, in relation to hawaiian language use which tends to sound more soft and solemn. The language is definitely a very unique one, and seems to be the most intense out of all pacific island languages. In the end, Paikea is able to set the beached whales free, proving that she is destined to be the next chief, despite the fact that she is a woman.