The Whale Rider

Book Description

Eight-year-old Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership, and her destiny. Her people claim descent from Kahutia Te Rangi, the legendary "whale rider." In every generation since Kahutia, a male heir has inherited the title of chief. But now there is no male heir, and the aging chief is desperate to find a successor. Kahu is his only great-grandchild--and Maori tradition has no use for a girl. But when hundreds of whales beach themselves and threaten the future of the Maori tribe, it is Kahu who saves the tribe when she reveals that she has the whale rider's ancient gift of communicating with whales.
Now available in simultaneous hardcover and paperback editions.
Feature film in theaters in June 2003!

Customer Reviews:

brilliant, beautiful, powerful folk tale of girl power.......2007-05-05

I love this movie, so I decided to read the book. As with any book on which a brilliant and well-executed film is based, it's a challenge for the reader to fall in love with the original story. The film was very faithful, and so it wasn't difficult to love this novel as well. But there are some deficiencies. First of all, the characters seem more real and dimensional in the film than the book. This is especially true of the heroine, who seems a mystical and distant child in the book, but comes off more real through Keisha Castle-Hughes' portrayal. Second, the film is much more realistic, only slightly testing the boundaries of reality and disbelief. The book is much more fantastic, though it contains more insight into the tribe's culture. And yet, the book is utterly powerful, honestly moving, and incredibly beautiful. It's a brilliant modern folk tale of a Maori tribe threatened by the modern world to hold onto its traditions. The chief (Koro) rejects his great-granddaughter Kahu who has broken the male line of succession. Koro tries desperately to maintain his tribe, reinforce the old traditions, and keep their connection with their totem animal, the whale on which their ancestor traveled to their lands. Meanwhile, Kahu desperately seeks her great-grandfather's love, not to mention acceptance. It slowly becomes obvious that Kahu--despite her gender and great-grandfather's rejection--is deeply connected to the whales and the sea (which is actually a taboo for a female to engage in), and is the salvation of her tribe. Obviously, fate and destiny care not for gender and traditions, as this girl is apparently destined for great things. It's an incredible story of family, destiny, strength, girl power, expectations, traditions, and culture. Grade: A

Has its problems, but still works........2006-08-24

Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider (Harcourt, 1987)

This relatively obscure little book exploded after being adapted into an award-winning film. The book still hasn't gotten as popular as the movie, though, and that's something of a crime against nature. I have not yet seen the movie-- I wanted to read the book first (and will likely see the movie next week)-- but I know how the whole book-to-movie thing usually goes. And it's usually a crime against nature when the book doesn't get popular even after the movie's a big hit, so I'm playing the odds on that one.

As for the book itself, it's quite a good little tale, full of a young adult kind of magic realism that's likely to make the reader, if he hasn't already, consider the link between magic realism, the literary cliché du jour, and folktales. Ihimaera gives us the Whale Rider creation myth while telling us the story of a Maori chieftain who refuses to see that his granddaughter Kuha is developing into the new chieftain before his eyes because of his traditional beliefs that a male must take the position. (Despite, we find out, the fact that women have held the position in the past. Hard-headed old sod, eh?) We spend much of our time just learning about the characters, with Ihimaera throwing in some interesting perspectives at times; for example, narrator Rawiri, Kuha's uncle, leaves New Zealand for two years to run a coffee plantation in Papua New Guinea (and this allows for some rather odd humor, as well as a blistering excoriation of modern racism in the region), and we find out about Kuha's development only through letters and phone calls for a while. Yet it is rare that Ihimaera takes his focus off Kuha for more than a paragraph or two at a time.

A lovely tale, well worth your time, whether you've seen the movie or not. *** ½

The film is certainly better.......2006-05-31

Like most people, I bought the book after watching the film... in fact it took me ages to find the book because here in Spain it was called "the legend of the whales". Anyway, I thought the film was very moving and since when I'm obsessed with a movie I buy also the book, I did.

The first thing that surprised me was that the girl is not called Pai, but Kahu, and second, that it was told from the uncle's perspective rather than the girl. I though it wouldn't be good because on the film the uncle is a rather minor character... and in fact, it isn't.

I found the story dull and had to make myself keep reading. The only good thing I can say is that at least it explained a lot of the myth of Paikea, which in the movie wasn't explained that much. Other than that, there wasn't anything to keep me hokked to the book.

Niki Caro is a great scriptwriter because she made a fantastic film from this rather forgettable book.

Excellent coming of age story.......2005-11-20

This is an excellent coming of age story for a young girl, or boy! Readers will find delightful lore and learn something of New Zealand. The movie wasn't a disappointment, though I'm glad I read the book first.
Chrissy K. McVay
author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

Lyrical...........2005-09-21

Simple without being simplistic, here's a magical tale of destiny and love. Essential reading for those who have become world-weary and cynical from the constant battering of our scientific-material world.

Beginner's Maori (Beginner's (Foreign Language))

Average customer rating:

Beginner's Maori
A decent but flawed intor to Maori
Kia Ora book worms!
A problematic language-learner's tool.

Beginner's Maori (Beginner's (Foreign Language))
K. T. Harawira
Manufacturer: Hippocrene Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0781806054

Customer Reviews:

Beginner's Maori.......2006-11-10

not very user friendly. i was hoping to open the book and be able to find every day phrases. instead it was broken down by grammatical points. i suppose it explains things well, but it takes a lot of time and focus - not for someone planning on visiting there soon and hoping to learn the basics.

A decent but flawed intor to Maori.......2003-03-14

This book was created some time ago. Some of the subject matter reflects this fact. It is a good brief intro to the language but has a major flaw. There are two sets of vowels, the short and the long vowel. It is very important to pronounce the vowel properly or the meaning of the word can be changed. This book represents all vowels as short vowels, thus the student incorrectly learns the word.

Kia Ora book worms!.......2000-01-20

This book got me off to a good start and I consider it to be a bargain for the price. If you're in any doubt about this book, buy it. It's worth every cent.

A problematic language-learner's tool........1999-03-09

The nearly complete lack of teach-yourself material on New Zealand's Maori language compels me to give the book 3 stars as I believe it is the only one to be found. The linguistic problem is the author's inattention to mark vowel length as well as poorly explaining certain consonants. However, Harawira's use of Maori texts and songs is rather charming. Invest in this book with caution.

Maori Tattooing (Dover Pictorial Archives)

Average customer rating:

Wonderful book!

Maori Tattooing (Dover Pictorial Archives)
H. G. Robley
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486430928

Book Description

This classic of ethnography describes Maori tattooing (moko), which communicates the bearer's genealogy, tribal affiliation, and spirituality. This definitive study relates how moko first became known to Europeans and discusses the distinctions between men and women's moko, patterns and designs, and moko in legend and song. Features 180 black-and-white illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful book!.......2007-02-14

I've read a lot about Maori tattooing, and this book is very informative and interesting. I strongly reccommend it for educational or personal research.

Concepts and learning in the Maori tradition (Working paper)

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Concepts and learning in the Maori tradition (Working paper)
Rangimarie Rose Pere
Manufacturer: University of Waikato, Dept. of Sociology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Teacher (Touchstone Books)
Sylvia Ashton-Warner
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671617680

Average customer rating:

Beautiful language, disturbing words
Deserving of 10 Stars
Very difficult and ultimately not really worth it
Wow...
Overrated and overwritten

The Bone People: A Novel
Keri Hulme
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140089225

Book Description

Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984. Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, a harsh environment, the novel chronicles the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European and Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter and a loner, convinced that "to care for anything is to invite disaster." Her isolation is disrupted one day when a six-year-old mute boy, Simon, breaks into her house. The sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, Simon has been adopted by a widower Maori factory worker, Joe Gillayley, who is both tender and horribly brutal toward the boy. Through shifting points of view, the novel reveals each character's thoughts and feelings as they struggle with the desire to connect and the fear of attachment.

Compared to the works of James Joyce in its use of indigenous language and portrayal of consciousness, The Bone People captures the soul of New Zealand. After twenty years, it continues to astonish and enrich readers around the world.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful language, disturbing words.......2007-09-07

This is a very difficult review for me to write. This book was recommended to me by a new friend.

The language is simply beautiful - even/especially the Maori words that I do not understand. Hulme's words create color drenched pictures and music that is haunting and incredibly sad. (Fitting music for the background of this book.)

The reason that this is a difficult review to write is that because Hulme is so successful at putting us inside the (3) main characters...but those are places I do not want to be. I sympathize with these incredibly damaged people - but I cannot empathize with them. The amount of violence - especially against a small child - leaves me heartsick and almost unwilling to read on.

Because of that level of violence - I was unable to trust Hulme when the story came to a conclusion. I simply no longer believed that the characters would act as they did.

This book provides a window to a world far from my own...one very foreign and very disturbing.

Deserving of 10 Stars.......2007-04-05

This was one of the best books I've ever read, and I've read a lot. Of the books I love, my relationship to those books are intellectual. My experience with The Bone People was purely emotional. From the first page I was hooked and I never looked back. This is a gut-wrenching read and not for everyone. It is not an easy read. It is a book that will never leave you, with characters you will never forget. This is one of the most unique books I have ever read. It is a book that requires a careful read. It is a timeless story. It is a love story, but not at all in the traditional sense. It is a story of three very damamaged people (one is a child) who come together and with all people that love each other, they have the power to heal each other, and destroy each other and over the course of this novel they do all this and more. It's a story of redemption and second chances. It's a harrowing yet fascinating look at the Maori culture. If you're considering reading this book - do so. If you can't get into it right off the bat, stick with it. This book is like no other. It won the Booker back in the 80s. Very highly recommended.

Very difficult and ultimately not really worth it.......2007-03-26

What a struggle it is getting through this Booker Prize-winning novel. It's not just the subject matter -- child abuse within the Maori culture of New Zealand, with a hefty dose of alcoholism thrown in for good meausre. It's also the writing itself, which reads as if it were unedited and subject to the writer's mood swings and bouts of mind-numbing depression? The frequent use of Maori language and expressions means you have to keep flipping to the back glossary which, after a while, becomes a pain. The characters are not very sympathetic and, in the end, I'm not really sure I cared what happened to these people, with the exception of the abused little boy.

Too difficult for such a minor pay off.

Wow..........2007-02-25

Like with many of the books that have garnered critical praise, I started off quite apprehensive about the quality of the book beyond the media-storm (albeit many years too late). But I must say that this did not disappoint. I was apprehensive initially as I am with all fiction that deals with a culturally charged location where race is a hot topic primarily because the taboo-subject and the fact that someone actually wrote about it in fictional form often obscures the poor quality of the text and the story on the whole. "The Bone People" is none of those things. In fact, it's a book that is so well done that the cultural conflicts taking place are a natural and organic part of the text.

The novel follows three people - Kerewin, Joe, and his pseudo-adopted mute son Simon. Kerewin is an artist living in isolation who stumbles upon Simon trying to steal from her. From their first interaction onwards, the two, both outcasts come together and form a wonderful relationship that grows to include Joe. What really works so well in this novel, and I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that one of the main characters is mute, is the way people read one another and have a way of understanding why it is they do something, whether it be to hurt or to show affection to someone. Hulme accomplishes so much in terms of emotional rapport between her characters that you hardly notice the levels with which they connect and feel for one another. I often found myself in awe with the way she strings words and phrases together in such a beautiful manner, one that truly perpetuates what it is she wants readers to understand about her characters. If you're wondering why so much emphasis on the praise I am heaping upon her character development, it's because the characters are the main reason why I was able to look beyond the Maori - European diaspora and see these people as alive and rich characters.

This is a splendid work that should be read for generations to come.

Overrated and overwritten.......2007-02-10

I didn't like this book much. I tried to work up some enthusiasm, but could not. The author giving the main character a very similar name to her own grated on my nerves. The central problem with the book is that far too much time is spent on long, meandering expositions on the characters' inner lives and the contents of their heads, as well as endlessly repetitive incidents in their lives - having drinks, the kid stealing, the terrible poems she inserts, etc. At LEAST 100 pages could've been cut. I never felt much affection for any of the characters, either, even if I felt sorry for them. The wordy expositions did not deepen the characters, they were also as repetitive as the scenes. I'm really amazed this won the Booker Prize. I almost quit in the middle, around page 200 where it REALLY bogs down, but I have a goal of reading as many Booker Prize winners and nominees as possible and I didn't want to fall short of doing that.

Average customer rating:

This movie took me to New Zealand
Bland and moralizing
"Complete Waste of TIme"
"Complete Waste of TIme"
Heavy handed

Once Were Warriors
Alan Duff
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679761810
Release Date: 1995-02-28

Book Description

Once Were Warriors is Alan Duff's harrowing vision of his country's indigenous people two hundred years after the English conquest. In prose that is both raw and compelling, it tells the story of Beth Heke, a Maori woman struggling to keep her family from falling apart, despite the squalor and violence of the housing projects in which they live. Conveying both the rich textures of Maori tradition and the wounds left by its absence, Once Were Warriors is a masterpiece of unblinking realism, irresistible energy, and great sorrow.

Customer Reviews:

This movie took me to New Zealand.......2006-04-07

While I agree this was one of the rare cases where the film was actually better than the book, had it not been for the book and subsequent movie my daughter and I would not have started what would be the beginning of a deep interest in Maori culture and a trip there where we stayed on Maori land.
The stories I was told during my trip were very special and some mirror the trials of the indigenous people of this country, also known as Native Americans. It opened me up to a place on this planet I may not have ever considered visiting. Now I can not wait to get back!

Bland and moralizing .......2005-08-12

I picked up Once Were Warriors because, like most other people, I had seen the movie and was expecting a riveting tale. This is, however, one of those rare cases where the movie surpasses the book in almost all facets.
The story is set against the backdrop of a government housing project in New Zealand and describes the trials and tribulations of a Maori family living on the dole (unemployment). The main characters are the parents, Ruth and Jake Heke, and some of their children, Nig, Booggie and Grace.
The movie (unlike the book) is fraught with emotion and sorrow, and you are swept into the netherworld of Maori society almost against your will. Perhaps if I hadn't seen the movie, I wouldn't have been expecting as much from the book and would have been less disappointed and more forgiving towards the author.
Unfortunately the bland and ineptly described milieu, the one-dimensional characters and lack of dialogue punctuation in the book gives a feeling of emptiness and you are left wanting more.
The story itself is not badly constructed and I could be charitable and say that Alan Duff employed the aforesaid writing devices to emphasize the soullessness of the society he describes. Regrettably he disproves this theorem by descending into a mire of soppiness at the end of the book.
He allows the characters to become pathetically clichéd and tries to turn a fictional account into a self-serving sermon on the moralities of his society. Both the book and the believability of the characters are devalued and made to suffer for this cheap trick of his.
On the positive side, the book initially makes a powerful statement about the effects of developed societies intruding into more primitive ones. The feelings of displacement and defeatism of a conquered nation are also explored as well as the impact they have on the psyche of the subjugated culture.
In conclusion, I would not recommend this book to anyone not extremely devoted to the Maori culture and the societal difficulties of New Zealand. There are many better books available in terms of the emotional, societal and familial structure issues this book attempts to explore.
If, however, you like your moralizing fed with a big spoon and rammed down you throat, this is the book for you.

"Complete Waste of TIme".......2003-07-10

I had watched the movie so I thought the book would be just as good or better: NOT! The lack of dialouge is disconcerting,and you never really get a grasp on the characters. Written correctly this would have been an excellent book, however when a book becomes a chore to finish, it is hardly an enjoyable experience. The movie is fantastic. Save your money {and your eyes} and rent the video!

"Complete Waste of TIme".......2003-07-10

I had watched the movie so I thought the book would be just as good or better: NOT!!! The lack of dialouge is disconcerting,and you never really get a grasp on the characters. Written correctly this would have been an excellent book, however when a book becomes a chore to finish, it is hardly an enjoyable experience. The movie is fantastic. Save your money {and your eyes} and rent the video!

Heavy handed.......2002-09-05

An earlier reviewer who said skip this and see the film was on the mark.
There's no doubting that this is an incredible powerful and important story (hence the 3 stars).
However, to describe the writing as heavy handed is an understatement. Unlike Lee Tamahori (film's director)Duff seems incapable of letting his characters and the situations they find themselves speak for themselves. When you've created characters as powerful and memorable as Jake and Beth it's so unecessary. The fact that Duff feels the need to intersperse the narative with his simplistic moralising means by the end you find yourself spend more time wishing he'd shut up than worrying about the fate of the family.
The film however is a masterpiece. Astonishingly powerful performances, and the direction pulls no punches whilst allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions. Duff could have learnt much, however from he's done since it doesn't seem that he did.

The Oldman Collection Of Maori Artifacts (Polynesian Society Memoir)

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The Oldman Collection Of Maori Artifacts (Polynesian Society Memoir)
W. O. Oldman
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Pacific Encounters: Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860

ASIN: 090894005X

Kai Korero: A Cook Islands Maori Coursebook

Average customer rating:

A good introduction

Kai Korero: A Cook Islands Maori Coursebook
Kai Korero
Manufacturer: Polynesian Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0908597142

Customer Reviews:

A good introduction.......2001-05-17

This is a very good introduction to Cook Islands Maori. Each point is simply explained, with lots of examples. You won't be fluent in Maori, but you can hold simple conversations. If you buy the tapes as well, it's the next best thing to being in Rarotonga, except you don't get the beaches and the food.

Average customer rating:

Maori

Ta Moko: The Art of Maori Tattoo
D. R. Simmons
Manufacturer: Reed Publishing (NZ)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 0790005689

Customer Reviews:

Maori.......2000-04-05

The book by Michael King, Revised Edition of a photography and social history, which submission all the facts of life among Maori before the Euporean time of settlements in NZ, what are the Maori like in past and today are totally different

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