Blogathon

Whale Rider (Film Notes)

afitzpatrick — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:02:49 +0000

Points to Observe:

1. How the culture has been portrayed

2. Apparent discourses (consider that they may be stereotypical of a certain group)

3. Is the portrayal of the focus group accurate? (Observe and analyse characters and their actions)

4. How has the Film Director positioned the audience?

Setting:

· East Coast New Zealand

· Focuses on Maori Culture/Traditions/Beliefs

· Main focus on Whangara people

Plot:

Paikea, a young girl, born into a Maori culture, believes that she was born to become the next leader for her people. However, her grandfather traditionally believes that only males are capable of fulfilling this role. Hence, the story shows Paikea’s journey in her fight to become her people’s new leader.

Cast:

· Paikea – Young girl

· Koro – Paikea’s Grandfather

· Nanny Flowers – Paikea’s Grandmother

· Porourangi – Paikea’s Father

· Uncle Rawiri – Paikea’s Uncle

· Hemi – Paikea’s Friend

· Roimata – Hemi’s Father

Themes/Discourses:

· Family

· Gender Roles

· Culture/religion

· History

· Generation Gap

· Tradition

· Role Models

· Human Vs Nature

· Education Vs Family/Community

· Self-Identity

· Leadership

General Notes (Each one can be classified in demonstrating a discourse):

· Koro was unable to start motor; rope broke; Paikea tied it back together and started the motor; Koro shouts at Pai – symbolic of the fact that he refuses to believe that Pai is capable of being the new leader

· Koro states that his grandaughter is “no use to him”; apparent that the Maori culture prizes males

· Koro says, “When she was born, that’s when things went wrong for us.” (referring to Paikea, loss of grandson and no leader)

· Koro blames Paikea for him being unable to select a new male leader to lead his people out of the darkness.

· Finding the new leader: Koro drops a pendent into deep ocean water; whichever boy returns it is the one; no one manages to retrieve it; Koro is saddened as he has failed in his mission to find the leader for his people.

· Due to the conflict, Pikea’s Grandmother decides that it’s best if she moves out

· In Koro’s failure and depression, he calls to whale for help – no use as they do not appear to answer his call

· Pikea also calls; they hear her

· Whilst sailing on the ocean with Uncle Rawiri, Paikea decides to dive into the water in an attempt to retrieve the pendent, deposited there by Koro

· Paikea succeeds and retrieves the pendant; becomes evident that she is the one

· Koro hears whales calling; heads to beach

· Koro arrives at the beach, sees whale washed up on shore, “Who is to blame?”

· Paikea had called to the whales, they answered her call, but now they were dying

· Paikea’s whale (their ancestor) had come to them because they were in trouble

· Paikea tries to help by touching the whale

· After hours trying to save the whale, it sinks to the ground

· Paikea approaches whale, touches it, whale lifts up out of water and heads to deeper part of the ocean

· Family returns to observe Paikea riding the whale – goes out into deep waters where she is nowhere to be seen; family believe that she is dead

· Paikea is saved; Koro realises that Paikea is the one; she is announced as the new leader and begins to lead the people into a new future

Music:

· Varied throughout to add feeling to a scene i.e. create happiness or sadness

· The use of whale music is popular in film to add to atmosphere and sometimes, to create mystery

A Traumatic Past (Based on the Novel: A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley)

afitzpatrick — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:23:53 +0000

As you get older, wiser and become more aware of the world, there are certain things in life that begin to remind you of traumatic past events. Past events which have undoubtedly tarnished your soul and haunted your sense of being since the moment that they occurred. It is only after you are reminded of this event that you realise that you can no longer avoid this demon. You must confront it by reflecting on the past and for me, that time has come.

For years, since the early stages of my childhood, I have only ever needed two things; Soma and sex. I have never known or wanted to know anything other. Maybe because I knew that they both helped to lock away my insecurities, provide renewable happiness and sustain my false sense of love for this world. To me, life has become unreal. In fact, I admittedly now realise that I have never felt a sense of belonging in this world. I have always believed and been severely reprimanded that happiness and truth are incompatible. So, in an attempt to gain happiness arose my addiction to wilful self delusion – Soma.

Soma has always been my escape from reality. It’s the only remedy for clouding my demons, blockading reality and strengthening the barrier between me and traumatic past times. Recently, I have come to realise that stepping further and further away from the truth has only caused me to become obsessed with pretending to love the world in which I live. This is where my desire for ongoing sexual activity grew, as well as my pretence in engaging in meaningless erotic play with multiple males. John sees this as being promiscuous, only because I refuse to wait for love. However, to me, it is nothing other than regular social interaction. Nevertheless, my desire for this stems from a dark and alienating moment in my past that I have been in denial about and refused to acknowledge for so long.

It was the horrified look on that dark haired, four year old boy’s face, from the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, which forced me to revisit a moment in my life which I chose to imagine never happened. Without permission, my mind began to ensure that the incident remained as vivid in my head as the day it occurred.

It was spring time. The daffodils were in full bloom, the sun drowned the garden with light and the sound of little voices ricocheted off the surrounding brick walls. Naked bodies charged through the grass, laughing, screaming – everyone in a world filled with joy and freedom. I took hold of my best friend’s hand as we skipped through the garden, smiling at everyone who we passed on our adventure. It was after this that I was taken; taken from the joy, the fun and the laughter into a world where I was scared and alone.

They lay my naked body down on a cold, hard surface. The light shining above fried my eyes, and I squinted for relief from the brightness of it. Inside me, I felt scared. My heart raced and the fear began to burn the inside of my stomach like acid on skin. Then, someone touched me.

“Now, Lenina, these lovely doctors are just going to play a little game with you, okay? It’s nothing to be afraid of,” reassured the Nurse.

It was their hands that did the work. They invaded my body. Lured, enticed, teased, touched and exploited. Every action was performed by people in white coats who only spoke with their eyes. As cold, metal instruments poked every part of my naked, four year old body, I was motionless. I was like an innocent prisoner and the words within me cried to be released to the world. The white walls encased me like a message inside a bottle. I now realise how I felt; so isolated, so undignified, so helpless. I could not understand how every other child viewed this as ordinary. Now I realise that it was torture; indecent, repugnant torture which had somehow, been assigned to normality.

I vividly remember leaving the room; every part of my tiny body ached with excruciating pain. I trawled across the cobbled pavement, dragging my exhausted body back to the garden where all of my friends were playing happily. I often wondered why none of the other children seemed to have endured the pain I did or suffer the unhappiness I experienced. From this moment onwards, Soma became my best friend. It included me in the world that the other children appeared to be living in, erased my troubles and supplied me with false but convincing happiness. I recall trying so hard to love the world in which I lived, persuading myself that I did by embracing enjoyment in every activity that confronted me. However, it never came naturally and undoubtedly never will.

Ten years later, overpowering desires to love this world still plague my soul. To tame my mind and convince my spirit, I find myself seeking sexual engagement, accepting the values of this world without question and still, using Soma to suppress unwelcome emotions. My regular sexual encounters are the only form of liberation I have in this life. They take me to another world; a world that is sensual, intimate and non-dictating – A world in which I can discover true happiness and feel as though I belong. In this world, I will never belong. My unhappiness will always be veiled by the clouds that Soma creates and my plagued soul will never be allowed to rest until I can express what is truth. Truth and happiness will never be compatible, and neither will myself and this world. All I can do is keep on pretending; pretending to embrace a world which has never truly accepted me as one of its citizens. For me, life will never be ‘real’ and until I can escape from this life I have been given, trying to belong in this world will be like waiting for love; useless and disappointing.

Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word…Not For Kevin Rudd It Isn’t.

afitzpatrick — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:58:45 +0000

Kevin Rudd has finally said “Sorry” to the Stolen Generation, but is his intention behind further reconciling with the Indigenous Population actually just dispossession in disguise? Anna Fitzpatrick investigates.

t was a three hundred and sixty one word speech which he made last for half of an hour; a speech which surprisingly won the audience over with meaningless but intellectual excuses and a speech which repeated the word “Sorry” an unforgiveable number of times. Nevertheless, on Wednesday 13th February, on behalf of the nation, the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, finally made a feeble attempt to say “Sorry” to the Indigenous Stolen Generation.

The Past

Ever since the era of the Stolen Generation ended in 1969, Australia has swept their mistakes, involving Indigenous issues, well under the carpet of denial. Now, forty years on, Australia has unveiled and acknowledged what actually happened and according to Rudd, hopefully concluded this “unfinished business” once and for all.

The term, “Stolen Generation” was given to the many generations of Aboriginal children who were taken away from their families by governments, churches and welfare bodies, to be raised in institutions or fostered out to white Australian families. This began in 1909, when the Aboriginal Protection Act gave the Aboriginal Protection Board legal sanction to take half-caste Aboriginal children from their families.

Until 1969, this practice was official government policy in Australia, but why was it deemed necessary? Since the occupation of Australia by the British, Indigenous Communities have constantly been oppressed. For hundreds of years, Aborigines have been viewed as inferior to the remainder of Australian society. In addition to being paid significantly lower wages to the average Australian worker along with no freedom of speech, Aborigines have never been accepted in society.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, with the intention of occupying land, the Australian state governments began to set aside specific areas for Aborigines. As these communities received very little governmental support, the land was usually sold to white settlers, consequently, forcing many Aborigines to relocate with their families.

Not long after this period of reclaiming land, the Australian Government began to believe that many Indigenous mothers and fathers were incapable of caring for their children. Alcohol abuse, child abuse and neglect were very prominent issues, existing among the Indigenous population. As they were said to be “concerned” for the children’s welfare, with the support of the nation, the Australian Government began to remove the youth from their families. So that is why they placed the children in institutions were they were physically and sexually abused, experienced poor living conditions, starvation and no contact with their families. We trusted that they had their best interests at heart…

Cruel Intentions

For years, based on their poor life expectancy, many past Australian Governments have claimed that the Indigenous population would eventually “die out”, leaving no adults to care for the younger generation. Placing a negative light on the matter, what a wonderful, once in a lifetime opportunity, this would have been for the Australian Government to attempt to integrate the futures of both cultures. As psychological studies have shown, it is a lot easier to manipulate the beliefs of a child than it is of an adult, especially if they are taken out of their usual surroundings and placed into the unknown. So, with these intentions, this is what the Australian Government did. Little did they know, in forty years time, they would be standing in front of generations of many Indigenous families who were destroyed and ripped apart by the government’s incredibly immoral decision.

Too Little, Too Late

On the surface, Kevin Rudd’s Sorry Speech seems to be a job well done. Nevertheless, reading between the lines hints at a hidden agenda that when revealed, is unbelievable, disturbing, and coated in betrayal. The giveaway of this hidden intention lies within the first few minutes of Rudd’s speech. The real objective of the “sorry” speech is revealed when Rudd states, “That is why the parliament is today here assembled: to deal with this unfinished business of the nation, to remove a great stain from the nation’s soul and, in a true spirit of reconciliation, to open a new chapter in the history of this great land, Australia.” (Rudd, 2008.) This single sentence opens the door to controversy. Was Kevin Rudd’s real intention, to only polish the tarnished reputation of Australia? Is his idea of dealing with this “unfinished business” opening a new, final chapter in Australia’s history? Will the book close with Australians denying all responsibility for Aborigines?

After all, the word, “sorry” does not, in anyway accept responsibility for any action, it only implies sympathy to the people affected by that action. As stated by Sally Warhaft, a well known critique of famous speeches, “Generally, Australians do not consider theirs as an oral culture. Talk, we believe, is a substitute for action, rather than a catalyst for it.” (2006) If this is the case, then why didn’t the Australian Government say “sorry” to the Stolen Generation by actually taking physical action and supplying them with houses, schools, medical attention and educational facilities? Yes, this does take a lot of planning, effort and time, but surely forty years is enough time? Or, could the real reason for the government refusing to physically improve Indigenous Communities be the fact that they do not want to have anything to do with them? Perhaps Kevin Rudd thought that the definition of reconciliation was to dispossess a group of people and their culture from mainstream Australia.

Ignoring The Present

Throughout the half an hour that the speech lasted, Kevin Rudd did not once refer to the present situation facing the Indigenous Community. Not once did he refer to today and not once did her refer to tomorrow. Instead, he referred to “five years from now”, in which he promised to have every child in education by the age of four, reducing infant mortality rates and “closing the gap”. Rudd, throughout his speech, names “the guiding principles of this new partnership on closing the gap” as being “respect, cooperation and mutual responsibility”. Even so, it can only be in Rudd’s world that the careful use of the phrase “mutual responsibility” is based on the concept of – ‘it’s our responsibility to give you the money; it’s your responsibility regarding what you do with it.’ – Allowing the present to become the future is one of the most irresponsible things the Australian Government could do. After all, the Sorry Speech is based on previous governments allowing that to happen in the past. So, how can the future possibly be dealt with if the present isn’t dealt with first? The disturbing realisation is that if past mistakes are allowed to become the mistakes of the future, one of the world’s oldest and most fascinating cultures will continue to be decimated.

Misleading the Future

Within Kevin Rudd’s three hundred and sixty one word speech, there was not a single word which could have encouraged forgiveness, trust or even faith in the Australian Government from the Indigenous Communities. Rudd’s intention to reconcile with the Stolen Generation is a deliberate attempt to further dispossess the Aboriginal Community from Australia, disowning them from society; physically, removing them as the stain from mainstream Australia. Even though one would like to believe that Rudd had every good intention when delivering his speech, this is not a realistic view, as the past has shown, that the future integration of both Australians and Aborigines will be an extremely arduous, if not an impossible, task. Hence, it is understandable why Rudd is taking the easy option and reconciling in the form of dispossession as clearly, if the Australian Government isn’t capable of dealing with the present Indigenous situation, they will never be capable of dealing with the future.