The movie Whale Rider takes place in New Zealand, somewhere in the mountains, in the 2000s. The story of our main character begins in a hospital and a mother gives birth to a newly born little girl, named Paikea Apirana. Even though it is supposed to be a happy moment, it causes much consternation to the father, Koro Apirana, as his wife has given birth to a daughter. A girl would not be able to carry on the Maori tradition, or so Koro thought. He states that it was the day when "everything went wrong for them as a couple." After uttering this statement, his eldest son, Porourangi, is later shown to have left for Germany to pursue his career. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Shortly after the son left for Germany, Koro's wife was announced dead somewhere during childbirth. Koro, when Paikea is handed over to him, does not want to hold his daughter in his arms. That's when Koro's mother, Nanny Flowers (Pai's grandmother), comes in and argues with her son about Pai and tells Koro that his wife may have given birth to a girl, but he has no idea what she might become. From this terrible scene, Nanny and Koro take Paikea to live with them. The main reason Koro was so angry with his wife and Pai was because of Maori culture. In many Oceanic cultures, men were the leaders and considered the sacred link between the ocean gods and the way of life. Women were considered tainted treasures. They were perfect for giving birth and that was about it. It was because women were menstruating that they appeared impure and grotesque. In other words, not all, if not all, Oceanic tribes wanted to spend time in the water. The main source of their food and the gods. A few years later, when Pai is a little older, we see that life is becoming more stressful for them all as a family. The first scene we see with Pai is the interaction with his aunts. Two of the three aunts were smoking at a table while playing cards. Once Pai smells smoke in the air, she remarks to her aunts, saying, "Māori women shouldn't smoke." This disrupts our birthing properties. This scene is very important because it shows that Pai understands his culture and firmly follows it. She believes that the Oceanic gods are still part of their world and that the whales still control their worldly outcomes. Moving forward, Paikea is now ten years old, at this point a new leader must be appointed, so all he little boys aged ten and above are gathered from the village to go to the ceremony grounds. On the religious field, they will go through four tests to prove which of the young men is the best of the best. If one currently reads this paragraph, there is a trend to be noticed. Only adolescent males could share the joy of becoming a chef. Women could only enjoy cooking and taking care of the children. Even though Paikea loved and followed her father's every word, she passed up the opportunity to become a leader. His father forbade him from training or taking advantage of the classes the boys took every day after school. Unknown to Porourangi, Pai trained every minute in the shadows and was trained by her uncle in staff combat. Eventually, Porourangi discovered she was training behind his back when Pai knocked one of the boys to the ground. He told Pai to stay away and she was nothing but a curse to him from day one. Both..