#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.

[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?