Moana
If you haven’t seen this film, what have you been doing for the past five and a half years? Seriously. I’m a huge Disney fanatic for those who don’t know, and this is legit my absolute favourite Walt Disney Animation Studios film. Hands down, no questions. I sob every single time I watch this movie. In fact I usually cry just listening to the soundtrack. It’s probably in my top five favourite films of all time. A part of that is because of the amazing story told about two women and how they help to heal each other.
This movie is one big metaphor. Well, it’s actually like, five big metaphors. But one of the themes this story explores is healing from abuse and generational trauma. If you haven’t seen this movie, please stop reading now, because I don’t want to spoil one magnificent second of this beautiful story for you. Come back after you’ve watched it.
Te Fiti, Mother Island, represents life, growth and nourishment in this film. Moana is healing. Te Fiti’s story is a tragic one. Her heart is stolen from her and she is transformed into a lava monster, Te Kā, meaning ‘the burning one’ in Maori. She is angry and poisoned, and she begins to poison the rest of the world in punishment for her heart having been stolen. Moana’s story is to find Maui, who took the heart of Te Fiti, and make him return it to her.
But Maui isn’t the one to return the heart of Te Fiti. This is why Moana represents healing in this film. Because she returns the heart and restores Te Fiti to herself, healing the lands. Not only is she a symbol for healing, but she also acts literally as one woman helping to put another back together again. The moment in the film where she restores the heart is heart wrenching in the best possible ways.
It’s such a beautiful metaphor for healing from trauma and abuse. And inside the metaphor are two amazing, strong women helping and healing each other. And that brings me to the other thing I mentioned. The story of healing from generational trauma. This is represented in more ways than one.
Firstly, we see in Te Fiti’s transformation from Te Kā the correcting of a wrong committed hundreds of years ago. I think it’s incredibly important that, while he wasn’t the one able to completely heal the trauma he caused, Maui is an important part of the process. He acknowledges his role in causing harm, apologises and strives to make amends. It’s not easy for him either. He comes up against the truth that he may need to make significant sacrifices from the person that he has become in order to heal the trauma he has caused. He runs away from that truth and it takes him time and reflection to realise that, regardless of how difficult it is for him, he has to fix what he has done. If this isn’t the perfect example of what we should be doing to help heal generational trauma, I don’t know what is. (And by ‘we’, I mean colonisers… you know, white people pretty much.) We need to give back what we took and strive to make amends for the harm we’ve caused.
“They have stolen the heart from inside you, but this does not define you. This is not who you are. You know who you are.” — Moana
That’s not even the only way generational trauma is explored in this film. We also see that there is generational trauma in Moana’s story. Her people were voyagers, but they became frightened of the ocean and stopped themselves from answering the call of exploration. Moana isn’t the only one shown to be drawn to the ocean. Gramma Tala spends quite a bit of time on the shore, and we see that her father once tried the same thing as her. And that story too is a perfect example of generational trauma. Chief Tui lets his tragic experience colour his reactions to his daughter’s love of the sea. And in this same way, the rot that is beginning to take over the island also represents how generational trauma can affect those who come after, regardless of when the trauma was inflicted. And this long line of generational connection is demonstrated in this film in the way we see the women coming together and physically pressing their foreheads against one another. Moana and Gramma Tala have this connection, as well as Moana and her mother Sina. And again, when Moana restores the heart of Te Fiti, we see her press her forehead against Te Kā’s, a symbol of the continuing generations sharing in the trauma that is now being healed.
So just as Moana heals Te Fiti’s trauma with the help of Maui, Moana’s generational trauma is in turn healed by Te Fiti, who brings life back to the land. This allows Moana’s people to begin voyaging again, something we see her father doing with her also, suggesting his trauma has also been healed by the events of this story. What an incredible and rich metaphor, one we can learn from and should strive to emulate. And all this achieved by a young woman.
“Wayfinding… it’s seeing where you’re going in your mind. Knowing where you are by knowing where you’ve been.” — Maui
Another scene I absolutely adore in this movie (also makes me sob every time) is when Gramma Tala comes back to visit Moana. She doesn’t berate her for giving up or being unsure about her capability to finish the quest she’s started. She doesn’t give her some inspiring pep talk to make her go on. She says, simply, “It’s not your fault… if you are ready to go home, I will be with you.” There is no judgement or attempt to shame Moana. And she’s not the one who tells Moana that she is able to succeed. All she does is remind Moana who she is. “Do you know who you are?” she asks.
And do you know what Moana says in response? She says, “I know the way. I am Moana.” Because that is all she needs to know, to know that she can do this. And if that weren’t enough to get some tears out of you, ‘moana’ in most Polynesian languages means ‘ocean’. She doesn’t need to fight against the water or battle the forces of nature, because it’s a part of her. And that’s exactly what this entire scene is about. Not only that the water is a part of, but that her Gramma is a part of her, her island, her family, the generations of voyagers who came before her. And the call that she feels, “isn’t out there at all, it’s inside me.” She finds the strength in herself to go on and it is a beautiful reminder of what women are capable of when we dig deep into ourselves. This strength is extraordinary.
I will never finish this post if I keep trying to add things, because I’ll never run out of things to say. There’s so much more I want to say, but I’ll leave it here for now. If you didn’t love this movie when you saw it the first time, or even the first few times, I hope you can see now why it’s such an incredible film, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Give it another watch and think about some of these things as you do.
Moana is available to stream everywhere on Disney+ and is available to rent or buy on YouTube, Google Play, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
