The
Legend of Paikea
The Maori are an indigenous people from New
Zealand. They came to this place it does more than 1000 years from their
mythical natal land Hawaiki's polynesia.
Nowadays the people maori represents 14% of the
population; their history, language and traditions are very important for
identity of this country.
Their cultural representations as songs, dances
and haka (dancing of ancestral war) are very interesting, but what caught my
attention was The Legend of Paikea, Whale Rider, who arrived from the sea
mounted in a mother-whale to create the land of people maori, and to teach
traditions and sacred rituals for that the people to remain united and to respect
mother Nature.
In the film that we saw, Whale Rider, was
reflected as Maori try to keep their customs in modern times. In this history a
girl named Paikea, fight for comply her destiny, to be a leader for her people. But this is overshadowed by the desire of her
grandfather Koro, because he hoped to have a grandson to inherit the title of
leader.
Throughout the film we see that such a title is
forbidden for women to, however this does not stop Paikea in continuing her
learning behind her grandfather, demonstrating great courage and bravery for
wanting to preserve her roots.
The film so much as New Zealand´s traditions teach us much
about how our culture must to be, because today most Chilean don´t know, nor
care to learn from their ancestors or roots, in this case the Mapuche are a
mainstay essential to the beginnings of our history as a country.
I hope this actually change, because
for to grow as a country, it is extremely important to preserve traditions, but
adjusting to the present.
Here I leave a link , about Paikea's
history, I hope that they enjoy it!! http://activitiesnow.com/wwmagazine/Christchurch/pages/page_50.pdf
Hi Ma. Angelica! I liked your entry a lot, because I learned some important facts about Maori people and culture. I didn't know so much about the "Paikea" legend. It's so interesting to learn about this culture that I personally like a lot. As I noticed, they're very traditional and also patriarcal, as the movie shows. The facts, that the man shows up as a symbol of strenght and leadership, and the woman as the person who has to be "useful" is very present in the movie. Thank's for the link, I'd helped me a lot to understand and get to know a little bit more about this culture.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, because you give a lot of extra information about their culture and Paikea's legend.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know too much about this legend, apart for the things that i learned from the movie so it's was very interesting to read it.
By the way the information that appears in the link it's like a behind the movie, very informative too.
I agree with you because I like too the film is really interesting like a girl establish that the women are strong too. the traditions have to be really important for all the people because all of them had a tradition and ancenstor. We don't accept our the life of our old relative.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that I have not seen the movie completely, your link helped me to understand a little bit more about it, additionally I did not know about Paikea's legend, that's why I am commenting your post, I found it very interesting and engaging.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that traditions and customs must not be forgotten, and you did a great job join this topic with the Mapuche history.
Thanks for all the comments, the truth is very important to maintain the customs and traditions, as our way of thinking, feeling, acting, our food and art are some of the many expressions of our culture, to put them into practice consistently we could transmit from generation to generation
ReplyDeleteI really like your entry because the movie call my attention because the Maori people try to preserve their culture despite the fact that sometimes the ancestors are very closed-minded,but at the end they changed their minds.They realized that remaining together they will be stronger than before.
ReplyDelete