Disney's "Moana 2" -- which picks up on the adventures of the titular character three years after the first film -- is still in theaters for Oregonians flocking to the movies over winter break.
The movie draws heavily from the history and culture of several Pacific Islands peoples, so The Oregonian/OregonLive spoke with Oregon State University professor Patricia Fifita, who is of Tongan descent and worked with Disney as part of a group of cultural consultants of Pacific Islander descent.
She said the group -- called the Oceanic Cultural Trust -- worked to make sure that the history, beliefs and cultures of people living in Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga and several other islands were represented accurately.
The movie follows Moana as she sets sail from her home island with a crew of friends and family members -- and the demigod Maui -- in an attempt to reunite with the people of other islands after centuries of separation.
In an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Fifita -- who teaches Pacific Island Studies as an assistant professor -- shares the meaning and history behind many cultural details in the movie, as well as her thoughts on Pacific Islander representation in modern media.
Note: The following interview has been edited for length and clarity -- and doesn't include spoilers.
A big part of the movie is focused on Moana trying to reunite with people on other islands after her people stopped voyaging generations ago. Is this based on a real historical event?
If we were going to look at the historical period of when this fictional setting from Moana was based on, it was situated primarily in the time before Eastern Polynesia was settled.
So there's a reference in Moana 1 and 2 that talks about this long pause where they stop navigating.
They mention it in a song too, that they stop producing this pottery called lapita pottery, which is used by archaeologists to date the settlement in the migrations of those who settled in the Pacific Islands, which eventually would become Polynesia, as well as the settlements in Melanesia and Micronesia as well.
For the film, there's a real emphasis on this long pause, essentially 1,000 years where there isn't long distance navigation happening as it once was during that initial period of settlement.
In the academic literature this group of people that were migrating over [from southeast Asia], they weren't yet distinctly Polynesian.
[The pause] is about 3,500 years ago, and then 1,000 years after that, you start to see movement and migration out East to Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Tahiti, even up to Hawaii, and then from the Central Pacific to down to New Zealand. And so that would be considered like the second wave of migration into Polynesia.
In different points in the movie, Moana finds the remains of clay pottery that her ancestors made. Is that the lapita pottery that's showing up in the movie?
It does [show up in the movie], yeah.
The lapita pottery was named after the lapita site in New Caledonia, which I think was the first pottery [from this group] that was discovered by archaeologists. And then that name got used for that whole group of folks that were trading within this complex, but you could trace their movements by finding evidence of this pottery.
But this was a very mobile group, so you see lapita pottery all throughout Fiji and in parts of Samoa, to specifically the Manu Islands, and then you don't see it go beyond there.
The patterns on lapita pottery are really significant because they represent different groups,
and these geometric patterns persist in the visual imagery and the cultural material culture of the Pacific today.
You can even see it on the patterns of people's tattoos. All of these link back to these patterns that you see on the lapita pottery, so it's a really interesting continuity there.
Even in my classes now, we'll look at these prints from the pottery and compare it directly to, you know, a tattoo that somebody's wearing today.
There are these really cool abstract geometric patterns that come from life, things like migratory birds, and those patterns still tell stories about our history. We practiced oral traditions and so whether it's through chant, song, or music, you can still see it in our visual imagery. Our stories are layered in them as well.
Throughout the first and second movies, Moana's ancestors visit her in the form of animals like whale sharks or manta rays. What's the significance of this?
This is one of my favorite parts [of the movie], the traditional practices around the family, and guess you could say, cosmogenic belief of our connections between the earthly world and the spiritual world.
The [beliefs are] very connected all throughout the Pacific and and so when our relatives pass and become our ancestors, some spirits will return embodied in a really special type of animal that you may not normally see. It could be a shark, it could be a whale, it could be what some might say are an exotic bird like an owl -- when you spot one of those animals, you know it's special.
They can also return and embody inanimate objects as well, whether it be a carving or a carved statue. They can return in those ways.
There's this connection to the ancient spirits that is also important, because those who really played a prominent role in life [when they were alive] or were of a higher status may even become deified, and there's this hierarchy of spirits that become lesser gods.
So we see all of these connections between the living and the divine.
The ancestral spirits returning is all part of that -- that beautiful and sort of beautiful relationship between the earthly world and the spiritual world that a lot of folks still practice today, even within my family.
It's a very important part of our life to know that our ancestors are still with us and that they visit us and that they strengthen us.
So I thought that was a really beautiful tribute to those belief systems in both Moana movies.
Are there any other cultural elements of the film that you think are worth pointing out?
The music in the film is really unique, and I think for a lot of Pacific Islanders who went to the film that was incredibly moving.
The musicians that they work with in the first and second film, they're called Te Vaka; they use the language Tokelauan.
But I think that was really powerful to have that music there. Disney did well to include these really important elements and I think that's what carried it so well, is to have even little bits of representation that are true to our cultures.
Of course, we can always do better and they're making a lot of money off of this film, but at the same time, I just really want to celebrate those positive aspects because those are really wonderful moments of happiness and joy to be able to put in a Disney film.
In your own words, what do you think makes accurate cultural representation important?
I think that there's a long history of misrepresentation of specific people in Pacific cultures, our land and our people in popular media and in film; this stems back to first contacts with Europeans and a colonial representation of the Pacific.
This has been perpetuated throughout time and it and it still shows up, you know, in the stereotypes that we are all wary of around, you know: these [stereotypes of] tropical paradises, being simple-minded people that are not capable of governing themselves.
The women are often overly feminized and sexualized or painted as the dusky maiden or the hula girl.
The men are often portrayed as the noble savage or the ignoble savage, and on the other end, you know, as a dangerous, savage warrior.
And so these are tropes that have persisted over time, these are the representations that often come to the forefront of people's mind.
So as far as representations go, we have this opportunity here with Moana to tell a story about the Pacific, and it really puts the Pacific as a place on the map.
I wanted to at least be part of that conversation to try to include details that might be intriguing or lead to more conversation, and that's and that's really what the film has done for my family too.
We can go home and we can talk about it and say, OK, what did you think about this? What Maui did here, did this work for you? Do you like it? Did you not like it?
I think it leads to more critical conversation, which I think is important and is worthwhile to do -- because at the end of the day when we talk about representation, we have to be critical of it and hope that it becomes more expansive and representational of those people who should actually be creating those representations.
-- Tatum Todd is a breaking news reporter who covers public safety, crime and community news. Reach them at [email protected] or 503-221-4313.