Witi Ihimaera - The Whale Rider

Oh the shame, the embarrassment, as she flung herself into his arms, crying, ‘Oh, Paka . You home now, you Paka . Oh, Paka .’

He blamed us all for that, and he tried to persuade Kahu to call him ‘Koro’, but Paka he was, and Paka he became forever after.

Being a big chief, Koro Apirana was often called to meetings all over the country to represent us. He had the reputation of being stern and tyrannical and because of this many people were afraid of him. ‘Huh,’ Nanny Flowers used to say, ‘they should face me and then they’ll know all about it.’ But me and the boys had a grudging admiration for the old fella. He might not always be fair but he was a good fighter for the Maori people. Our pet name for our Koro was ‘Super Maori’ and, even now, telephone boxes still remind me of him. We used to joke: ‘If you want help at Bastion Point, call Super Maori. If you want a leader for your Land March, just dial Whangara 214K. If you want a man of strength at a Waitangi protest, phone the Maori Man of Steel.’ Mind you, he wasn’t on our side when we protested against the Springbok Tour but then that just shows you the kind of man he was: his own boss. ‘Right or wrong,’ Nanny Flowers would add.

The meeting that Koro Apirana had attended was about the establishment of Kohanga Reo, or language nests, where young children could learn the Maori language. The adult version was the language school, the regular instruction of the kind which Koro Apirana had established a year before in Whangara. Although we weren’t that well educated, the boys and I enjoyed the lessons every weekend. It soon became obvious that Kahu did also. She would sneak up to the door of the meeting house and stare in at us.

‘Go away,’ Koro Apirana would thunder. Quick as a flash Kahu’s head would bob away. But slowly we would see it again, like a spiny sea urchin. I suspect that Kahu overheard more than we thought. I am certain she must have been there when we learnt that man was once able to talk, to communicate, with whales. After all, Paikea must have had to tell his whale where to come.

The whale has always held a special place in the order of things, even before those times of Paikea. That was way back, after the Sky Father and Earth Mother had been separated, when the god children of both parents divided up between themselves the various Kingdoms of the Earth. It was the Lord Tangaroa who took the Kingdom of the Ocean; he was second in rank only to the Lord Tane, the Father of Man and the Forests, and so was established by them the close kinship of man with the inhabitants of the ocean, and of land with sea. This was the first communion.

Then the Lord Tangaroa appointed the triad of Kiwa, Rona and Kaukau to assist his sovereign rule: Kiwa to be guardian of the southern ocean, Rona to help control the tides and Kaukau to aid the welfare of the sea’s denizens. To the triad, two other guardians from the Kingdom of the Land, Takaaho and Te Pu-whakahara, brought a special suit: their offspring had been given lakes to live in, but they preferred to roam the freedom of the sea. The suit was accepted, and this was how sharks and whales were granted habitation of the ocean.

From the very beginning the whale was grateful for this release and this was why the whale family, the Wehenga-kauiki, became known as the helpers of men lost at sea. Whenever asked, the whale would attend the call, as long as the mariner possessed the necessary authority and knew the way of talking to whales.

But as the world aged and man grew away from his godliness, he began to lose the power of speech with whales, the power of interlock . So it was that the knowledge of whalespeaking was given only to a few. One of these was our ancestor, Paikea.

Then came the time when Paikea asked his whale to bring him to our land, far to the south, and it was done.

As for the whale itself, some people say the whale was transformed into an island; viewed from the highway to Tolaga Bay, the island certainly does look like a whale breaking through the water.

The years went by, and the descendants of Paikea increased on the land and always paid homage to their ancestor and the whale island. In those days there was still communion with the Gods and a close relationship between land inhabitants and ocean inhabitants. Whenever man wished to cross the border between his kingdom and that of the ocean he would honour Tangaroa by making offerings of seaweed, or fish or birds. And when Tangaroa granted man good fishing, man would return the first fish of the catch to the sea god as acknowledgement that his welfare was only by leave of Tangaroa. So it was that ceremonials of respect were employed between man and sea. For instance, fishing was sacred and women therefore did not go out with the men, and fishing grounds became steeped in special rituals to ensure their bounty. And even the shark, in those days, was a helper to man unless man had transgressed a sacred law.

Until the time came when man turned on the beast which had been companion to him and the whalekilling began.

That night, after the school on the whales, I arrived home to find Nanny Flowers out on the verandah with Kahu in her arms, rocking back and forth, back and forth.

‘Rawiri, what happened down there?’ she asked, jerking her head at the meeting house. I saw Kahu rubbing small fists against her eyes.

‘Nothing,’ I answered. ‘Why?’

‘This kid has been sobbing her heart out,’ Nanny Flowers said. She paused. ‘Did the old paka growl at her?’

Ever since the school had started, Nanny Flowers had been chucking off at Koro Apirana. While she agreed that the instruction should take place, she couldn’t help feeling affronted about the exclusion of women. ‘Them’s the rules,’ Koro Apirana had told her. ‘I know, but rules are made to be broken,’ she had replied in a huff. So, every first Saturday of the month, she would start to play up and pick on Koro Apirana. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ he would say. ‘Te mea te mea.’

‘He didn’t growl at Kahu any more than usual,’ I answered. ‘he just doesn’t like her hanging around when we have the school, that’s all.’

Nanny Flowers compressed her lips. I could tell that rebellion was ready to boil over inside her. Then she said to me, ‘Well you take this kid with you somewhere because I’m going to have a word with Koro Api when he gets back, the old paka.’

I must admit that I was brassed off, having Kahu shoved at me like that. I was planning on taking my darling Cheryl Marie to the movies. So I phoned her up to explain that I had to look after a baby.

‘Oh yeah,’ my darling said sarcastically. ‘And I suppose she’s not five foot two with eyes of blue.’ Cheryl was jealous of my other darling, Rhonda Anne.

‘No,’ I said. ‘My baby is you . Eyes of brown and lives in town.’

Would you believe it, my darling hung up on me? So what else could I do except take Kahu to the movies instead. The boys laughed when I zoomed up to the Majestic with my substitute ‘date’ under my leather jacket, but the girls loved her. ‘Oh isn’t she gorgeous? Isn’t she sweet?’ Yuk. I could see a mile off that the girls were also assessing whether I had now become marrying material. No way .

The movie had already started. Children weren’t supposed to see it, but the darkness made it easier to sneak Kahu in. What I hadn’t realised, however, was that the main feature was about a whale being hunted through Antarctic waters. Everything was fine, really, for most of the film, because Kahu soon fell asleep. Having her curled up so close to me made me feel protective, like a father, I guess, and I think my bonding to her was confirmed that night. I felt I should look after her till the world ended; every now and then, I would open my jacket and sneak a look at her tiny face, so wan in the light of the flickering film. And a lump would come to my throat and I would think to myself, ‘No, Kahu, I won’t forget you, ever.’