Why the interest in sharing Whale Rider with the public again?
I was brought over by Pacific Islanders in Communication. They asked the Girls Scouts to cooperate with them because it’s such an empowering film for girls. And this is the first time the film will play on national television in the States and so I thought it’d be cool to come over and support it. And because it’s a great story and Pacific Island stories need to be told. This is a great example of that. When you did Whale Rider, were you already aware of the Maori cultural issues in the film? Yes. But I think doing the film made me want to grasp them more. We lost the culture, like many other indigenous cultures did. My nationality was always a keep-it-to-myself kind of thing, but now I say I’m Maori proudly. I don’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of. We’re supposed to be a lower class because of our race, and you’d think that in the 21st century things would be better and it wouldn’t be as racist, but all over the world it still is. So it’s not so much a problem of ancestry and suc
