Niki Caro's acclaimed film, Whale Rider, is the ambitious story of a young Maori girl's attempt to prove herself to her grandfather and embark on his destiny as a tribal leader. Her grandfather, the chief of Whangara, has old-fashioned attitudes that blind him to his granddaughter's potential as his successor. It is only when tragedy strikes that Pai can demonstrate to his grandfather that his community's connection to the spiritual world of the Maori continues to survive. The emphasis on Māori culture and myth allows us to classify Whale Rider as a film that shows the protagonist, Pai, not being able to "return home" and understanding it through a connection between myth, culture and family. Myth: Myth comes from the Greek word mythos, which means story or word, which explains how the world is. In this context, Whale Rider depicts the world of the Maorians. The Maorian myth concerns Paikea, an ancestor of the Maori community who arrived in Aotearoa on the back of a whale. According to traditional myth, when the ancient ancestor Paikea was lost at sea and fell from his canoe, he rode on a whale which took him to a coastal area of ​​New Zealand. This myth is narrated by Pai at the beginning of the film: My name is Paikea Apirana. And I come from a long line of leaders, stretching all the way to Hawaiki, where our ancients are, those who first heard the earth cry and sent a man. His name was also Paikea and I am his most recent descendant... But I was not the leader my grandfather expected. And by being born I broke the line that goes back to the ancients. . . . “In the old days, the earth felt a great void. She was waiting: she was waiting to be filled; wait for someone to love him; waiting for a leader. And he arrived on the back of a whale: a man to lead... middle of paper... and the understanding of the culture is blocked because Koro won't allow it. Even after the boys fail to obtain the whale tooth necklace, the chief's leadership emblem. Koro completely gives up hope of finding a successor. Overlook who can do it. Pai needs to "go home", to a spiritual "home", but is powerless against his grandfather. Works Cited Bernard Beck (2004) The Sea Around Us: Social Climbing in Seabiscuit, Whale Rider, and Finding Nemo, Multicultural Perspectives, 6 :2, 24-27.Butler, Judith. Gender issues: feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge, 2006Women Warriors: The Environment of MythJ. Donald HughesEnvironmental History, Vol. 12, No. 2 (April 2007), pp. 316-318Published by: Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental HistoryStable Article URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25473078