[first lines] Paikea: In the old days, the land felt a great emptiness. It was waiting. Waiting to be filled up. Waiting for someone to love it. Waiting for a leader. [child birth scene] Paikea: And he came on the back of a whale. A man to lead a new...
Paikea: My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs.
Paikea: Maori women have got to stop smoking. We've got to protect our childbearing properties. Maka: You'd have to be smoking in a pretty funny place to wreck your childbearing properties.
Koro: If you have the tooth of a whale, you must have the jaw of a whale to yield it.
Paikea: A long time ago, my ancestor Paikea came to this place on the back of a whale. Since then, in every generation of my family, the first born son has carried his name and become the leader of our tribe... until now.
Koro: Wise leader, forgive me. I am only a fledgling new to flight.
[about her brother] Paikea: They were waiting for their new leader... but he died.
Paikea: I wasn't scared to die.
[last lines] Paikea: My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the whale rider. I'm not a prophet, but I know that our people will keep going forward, all together, with all of our strength.
Koro: When you extend your tongues, you're saying to your enemies: I'm gonna eat you.
Nanny Flowers: [to a newborn Paikea about Koro] Silly old Paka. You say the word, and I'll get a divorce, bub. You just say the word.
Paikea: Why doesn't he want me? Porourangi: He's just looking for something that doesn't exist anymore. Paikea: A new leader? They exist.
Paikea: It's not Koro's fault, that I'm a girl.
Porourangi: Her name is Paikea. Koro: No, not that name.
Koro: When she was born, that's when things went wrong for us.
