Some of the meanings I gathered were the unhealthy community due to the lack of leadership. The woman all began smoking, the uncle became fat and lazy, and one of the community kids fathers left him for days at a time. The whale tooth also represented the strength to be a leader and the approval to be chief. Koro used the whale tooth to see who was worthy of becoming chief and once he realized is was Pai, he placed it around her neck in the hospital bed. The whale represented a symbol of life or death. The whale is what saved Paikea and brought him safely to land. Once the whales started appearing on the shore and dying, Koro knew the community would either die along side them, or the whales would survive and the community would as well. He
