He mimics orature in his use of descriptive “tags” to help drive plot and trigger memory (for example, many things are described as “spearing” in order to remind us of a spear thrown by the ancient Paikea). However, one quickly realises that Ihimaera’s language is strategically crafted. He sets the reader up to expect a children’s story in an author’s note in which he observes that he wrote this feminist myth with his young daughters in mind. Ihimaera’s novel, like some of his short stories, is deceptively simple. But novel and film have somewhat different emphases and The Whale Rider is not only a star-making vehicle for a talented child. All of the film references on the book’s cover invite us to collapse the novel and the film and to relax into a dreamy vision of Maoriness based on the lucent young actress. The book’s cover also provides five pictures of Keisha Castle-Hughes, the actress who plays Paikea (a young girl who, despite her gender, turns out to be the next in a line of Maori leaders).

The book’s front cover describes it as “he triumphant novel that inspired the award-winning movie” on the back appears a list of three of the nine awards the film has won so far: the 2003 Sundance Festival World Cinema Audience Award, the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award and the 2003 Rotterdam International Film Festival Canal Plus Audience Award. A new edition of Witi Ihimaera’s 1987 novel The Whale Rider accompanies the 2003 film.

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera