#4: "The Whale Rider" by Witi Ihimaera (Reed, 2002)

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (Reed, 2002)



I need to have my own copy of this book. And I will possibly buy two copies and donate one to the library where I work, because they need to have a copy too.

This book is brilliant. I haven't seen the movie (although I've been reliably informed that I really must see it), and I have to admit that now I'm not entirely certain how the book would transfer to the screen (although clearly it must have done). The magical-realism elements (I'm not sure what else to call the sections of the book from the whales' point of view) took a while to get into, and yet once I did, were magnificent. The whole book showed up, in a way, the paucity of the way that Australians relate to our indigenous peoples, when this book can be written, become a best seller, and then an international success as a movie, while books of Australian "folklore" are full of stories about bushrangers. (More)

Comments

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

The movie is lovely, and there are some small magic-realism elements, although nothing from the whales' POV. I didn't realize there was a book! I'll have to read it.

[firecat]

Ditto!

[sanguinity]

I saw the film a few years back, and enjoyed it very much. And I'm intrigued by the whales' point of view.

I do not know the fine points of the relationships between different societies within Australia (nor segments thereof), but the possessive "our" in "our indigenous peoples" is making me twitch, especially in the context of the apparent exclusion of indigenous Australians from the group "Australians." Isn't it just the non-indigenous Australians who have a diminished relationship with indigenous Australians?

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

You make a good point.

The "our" was intended as a distinction between Australia and New Zealand, and also an owning of the situation (this is "our" problem). But yes, I could have used sharper language.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I parsed what you were saying as "The Australian literary and media establishment is even less open to the perspectives of indigenous people than is the New Zealand literary and media establishment," which resonated for me as it's something I often think about the difference between the US and Canada in that respect.

But I also appreciated sanguinity's point about your word choice, and your response to that point.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Oh, I should say that I think Canada's lit/media/cultural establishment generally does a better job of including First Nations artists and their perspectives than does the US's lit/media/cultural establishment with Native American, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawai'ian artists and their perspectives.

Of course I think that both countries' powers-that-be should do a lot more, but I feel that Canada fails less in the endeavor than does the US.