If you didn’t know, I, myself, am from the island of O’ahu, which is the capital island of the state of Hawaii. I was born and raised there, and I love my home with all of my heart and soul.
While I am not Hawaiian by blood, Hawaii and its culture means so much to me. I grew up on its land, I soaked up its sun, I played where the ancient Hawaiians lived and breathed and flourished. I believe that Hawaii was wrongly annexed by the United States. I believe that the past cannot be undone and I believe that today’s Hawaiians are working harder than ever to maintain the Hawaiian culture and to pass it down to the new generations.
The Hawaiian culture is dying. The Hawaiian language is dying. Although the people of Hawaii will not give up the fight so easily, the Hawaiian culture is slowly fading. So often it seems that non-natives only care about the culture when they come to vacation. They want as much of the tropical paradise and as much of the island culture that they are capable of soaking in while they’re on the islands… but once they leave, none of it matters to them.
Auli’i Cravalho is the amazing young girl who voices Moana. She is 16 years old, is from my hometown, and is native Hawaiian by blood. Auli’i attends an all-Hawaiian school in which students are only admitted if they are native Hawaiian. This school teaches their students in Hawaiian culture as avidly as they teach math and English. During an interview with the New York Times, Auli’i was asked “how tourists can get to know the real Hawaiian culture instead of doing tourist-y things.” She responded “If I’m being completely honest, I have no idea. I know my culture, the deeper elements, but I don’t know where anyone could do that in just a trip. It isn’t something you just stop by and see.”
When I read this, I was amazed. She seems wise beyond her years. Her response is mature, raw, and shockingly true. No one can absorb an entire culture on a week-long vacation. To absorb culture is to learn, to listen, and to immerse yourself in it with abandon. It is to enter with open eyes and an open heart and to partake without judgment. This is an entire peoples’ way of life, and whether it aligns with another culture’s standards is not important when one is trying to understand a culture.
Another problem Polynesian cultures face is the commercialization of their cultures. In Hawaii, tourism is our biggest industry. The commercialization of Hawaiian culture is one result, and some may even say objective, of the tourism industry. Pineapples, coconuts, grass huts, and the coffee bean are played up, even to the extent that it’s almost comical at times. The luaus that tourists attend feel reminiscent of Vegas, with feel-good elements that have been blown way out of proportion with endless Mai Tais and watered-down hula and haka performances. Tourists simply don’t want to be reminded that for them to be able to vacation there, the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown and the Hawaiian people made citizens of the U.S. against their will. Tourists want the shopping, the relaxation, and the ease of a laid-back vacation in the Hawaiian Isles, not an educational and emotional trip into Hawaiian history and culture… and so the tourism industry has simplified the most notable aspects of Hawaiian culture and turned them into selling points. I do admit, without the tourism industry, Hawaii would not be what it is today. I am very thankful for the way things are, even though the path that has lead us here isn’t totally sunshine, sea breeze, and blooming plumeria trees. I, along with so many others, just want our culture to be recognized and respected as it should be—in its most genuine, honest form.
Our culture matters to us.
It matters to the people who live here and love here. It matters to the people who carry Polynesian blood in them, whose culture is being distorted and disintegrated with every day that passes.
Moana means something to us. Moana is the dawning of a new day; it’s the first step in the right direction. Moana is the first instance that Polynesian culture has been set center-stage. Sure, it’s not perfect. But I’d like to argue that it’s well near that.
Before writing this, I looked into reasons others may think the movie is problematic. There are several viable arguments that have been made, but the one I agree with most is the misrepresentation of the mythological Kakamora. The legendary Kakamora are often described as short human-like creatures with very long, sharp fingernails that could double as daggers if needed. The small, cute, coconut-warrioresque Kakamora in the movie admittedly don’t resemble the mythological description.
A second argument is that Maui was depicted as far too overweight. The United States’ primary exposure to Polynesians is through the NFL, into which several Polynesians from Hawaii have advanced. Of course a football player is going to be large, and some believe that this is a misrepresentation of the average Polynesian man, nonetheless the demigod Maui. Disney stated in return that in animation, much of a character’s personality is told through their outward appearance, so Maui had to look powerful and strong enough to stop the sun and to pull islands from beneath the ocean. They have a valid point. I’d also like to argue that Maui was large overall, stockishly built, and completely proportionate for the way they animated him. I thought that his stature perfectly reflected both his personality and the actions he is capable of.
Another issue concerning Maui is his storyline in the film. Maui appears in many different Polynesian cultures’ mythologies. In some, Maui is a revered hero, whereas in others he is not a hero, but an intelligent and clever troublemaker. To those cultures in which Maui is nothing but a hero, the portrayal of Maui as a thief is despicable.
A third argument that I can understand is that Disney has plotted out a prototypical Disney princess with a prototypical Disney princess storyline… and that they’ve just painted a Polynesian skin on her. Nate Chinen brings this point up in his article for Slate At the same time, though, couldn’t that be said about any of the Disney princesses to a certain extent, with the exception of Pocahontas? In fact, it could even be argued that putting a Polynesian skin on Pocahontas would be more accurate (although reasons Pocahontas is so extremely, immensely, unbelievably inaccurate and problematic is a whole separate article), considering Hawaiian history. If we put a Polynesian skin on Anna and Elsa and kept the storyline of sisterly love it would be alright… it wouldn’t be amazing, but it would be fine. At its core, the argument here is that Moana’s storyline wasn’t exclusively Polynesian enough. If Moana was a white character rather than a Polynesian one, the story would be almost exactly the same.
I’ve also seen a few people bring up that wayfinding was not properly portrayed since the ocean, as a personified character, helped Moana during her time on the open ocean a few times. However, part of Maui and Moana’s journey together is dedicated to Moana learning how to be a wayfinder.
Lastly, lava is what created our islands. It is understandable that some are upset over the main antagonist of this film being a lava monster. That’s the thing with fire and lava… they are dangerous, yes, but they also birth life. Te Fiti, the mother earth figure, becomes the enraged Te Kā, an unforgiving lava monster, when her heart is stolen from her. In many Polynesian cultures, lava has its own deity. Lava created the land that the people live on and it deserves respect, for without it, they would not be here. Lava’s destructive power cannot be ignored, however, and one does not want to get in the way of an active lava flow. I see Te Kā as Te Fiti’s alter ego, and not necessarily a bad one. The islands Maui pulls up from the sea have to come from somewhere, after all. The film highlights that lava, while dangerous, holds regal power and beauty. Te Kā creates the islands needed for life while Te Fiti populates those islands with flora and fauna.
While these trip-ups are not excusable, they are also not a reason to discredit the rest of the movie, which is done so well. Disney spent five years doing research for this movie. Five. Whole. Years. They jetted Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i, and Mark Mancina, the three individuals responsible for the mind-blowing soundtrack that the movie produced, to a traditional vocal and dance festival in New Zealand. Foa’i journeyed to Fiji with his family to oversee the recording of a Pacific choir. They consulted the Oceanic Story Trust time and time again to be sure that they weren’t misrepresenting Polynesian culture. In fact, Disney had originally planned for Maui to be bald, but Polynesian hair is such a big part of the Polynesian identity that the Oceanic Story Trust pushed until Disney agreed to give Maui his beautiful, thick, wavy hair to match Moana’s.
Ultimately, Moana is an extremely well-researched and well-executed portrayal of Polynesian culture. Aside from the Kakamora issue, I really believe that Disney did a wonderful job of representing Polynesian culture. Yes, there are other flaws, but a great deal of effort to truly understand Polynesian culture went into this, and none of these flaws (aside from the Kakamora, because those had to be consciously animated that way) were on purpose. Opetaio Foa’i stated in an interview with Billboard that the idea of culture and cultural identity behind Moana is to shed light on true Polynesian culture and “that people get to see and understand more of our beautiful cultures here in Oceania, more than what you see at a tourist resort.”
Moana is the first step to reclaiming true Polynesian culture. It is the first step in sharing genuine Polynesian culture with the rest of the world. It is a pure-hearted celebration of Polynesian culture and a brave, strong-willed girl who is willing to go beyond the horizon to save her home. I will not pass up this opportunity for awareness of and appreciation for our culture to be spread. Like the ocean calls to Moana, I cannot help but be called to such a celebratory film.