Indigenizing girl power

The Whale Rider , decolonization, and the project of remembering

Bibliographic Data

ID12690489
AuthorsMarnina Gonick (0000-0001-5801-7030, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume10
Issue3
Pages305-319
Publication date2010-08-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Media Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-0777 • E-ISSN: 1471-5902
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14680777.2010.493648
OpenAlexW1503271429
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited22

This article considers the intersection of girlhood, agency, and indigenousness through a reading of the internationally renowned film Whale Rider. I suggest that Whale Rider presents a double project that resymbolizes girlhood as it also produces a "decolonizing of the screen." On the one hand the film resonates with what emerged in the 1990s as the assertion of "girl power" and the notion of a new, active, powerful and agentic femininity. On the other hand, the film mobilizes a re-articulation of these discourses of "new femininities" by "indigenizing the image" of the empowered girl. Keywords: girlsindigenousNew Zealand filmagencynew femininities Notes 1. See, for example, Mottesheard (2003 Mottesheard, Ryan. 2003. Girl power: New Zealand writer/producer Niki Caro talks about "Whale Rider". Indiewire.com, 6 June, [Online] Available at http://www.indiewire.com/people/people-030606caro.html (3 Sept. 2008) [Google Scholar]). 2. The marae is, according to Mohanram (1996 Mohanram, Radhika. 1996. The construction of place: Maori feminism and nationalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand. NWSA Journal, 8(1): 50–69. [Google Scholar]), a far more complex version of the Town Hall, with spiritual connotations; the marae is a building and the land surrounding it whose most important function is to symbolize the tribe. 3. See, for example, the review by Karten (2003 Karten, Harvey (2003) 'Review of Whale Rider', [Online] Available at: http://www.rottentomatoes.com (5 June 2004) [Google Scholar]). 4. See, for example, Stasia's (2004 Stasia, Cristina Lucia. 2004. "Wham! bam! thank you ma'am!": the new public/private female action hero". In Third Wave Feminism: A Critical Exploration, Edited by: Gillis, Stacy, Howie, Gillian and Munford, Rebecca. New York: Palgrave McMillan. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) discussion of agency and girl hero films and Burman's (2005 Burman, Erica. 2005. Childhood, neo-liberalism and the feminization of education. Gender and Education, 17(4): 351–367. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) essay examining the "girling" of agency in the film Amelie. 5. See, for example, Ochieng (2003 Ochieng, Frank (2003) 'Whale Rider', [Online] Available at: http://theworldjournal.com (5 June 2004) [Google Scholar]). 6. McRobbie (2000 Mcrobbie, Angela. 2000. "Sweet smell of success? New ways of being young women". In Feminism and Youth Culture: From Jackie to Just Seventeen, 2nd edn, 198–214. London: Macmillan. [Google Scholar]) makes this argument in her detailed analysis of the British media's intensified focus on the problems and issues of young men. She includes examples of the under-performance of boys in schools and the problems now facing young men in the labor market. 7. Unlike Antigone, who pays the price of death for her disobedience, Pai lives to be celebrated by her community and her grandfather who even apologizes for not having recognized her as his successor as she lays unconscious in a hospital bed. 8. This is a highly decorated, wood-carved large boat

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Art · Articulation (sociology · Assertion · Femininity · Girl · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Reading (process · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology

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