Disney's Moana film a subject of critique at ASAO conference Featured
From left to right: Some of the Moana/Pacific presenters and participants Dr Patricia Fifita, Dr Tania Wendt-Samu, Matnginifale Dr Nuhisifa Seve-Williams, Fepulea'i Dr Miach Van der Rhyn, Maui-Tava-He-Ako Professor Tevita O. Ka'ili, Brian Kafakafa Dawson, Hufanga Professor 'Okusitino Mahina, Kula-he-Fonua Professor Pingi Ann-Addo (co-presenting with a Hawai'ian PhD scholar standing next).
16 April, 2017. A group of Moana/Pacific academics and scholars descended on the island of Kaua'i in Hawai'i, where Disney's Moana film was a subject of critique in a session called "Mana Moana: We are Maui, We are Moana."
This session was one of multiple sessions running concurrently at the annual Association of Social Anthropology of Oceania (ASAO) conference Tuesday 7- Saturday11 February, 2017, attended by some 200 anthropologists.
These anthropologists were mainly from Northern American and European Universities, with strong contingents from across the Moana/Pacific, including Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The session was organised by established Tongan cultural anthropologist Maui-Tava-He-Ako Professor Tevita O. Ka'ili and fine Niuean educationalist Matanginifale Dr Nuhisifa Seve-Williams.
Many of the presenters and participants included Professor Vincente Diaz, Professor Malama Meleisea (who delivered conference keynote address), Professor Vilisoni Hereniko, Hufanga Professor 'Okusitino Mahina (who also presented in two other sessions) and Kula-he-Fonua Professor Pingi Ann-Addo, Brian Kafakafa Dawson, Leali‘ifano Dr Albert Refiti, Professor Saili Lilo-Maiava, Dr Tania Wendt-Samu, Dr Patricia Fifita, Dr Melani Anae and Fepulea‘i Dr Micah Van der Rhyn.
One of the key questions discussed was about the fairness, appropriateness and equity of the exchange relations between the regional Moana/Pacific cultures and Disney over Moana, which has earned worldwide acclaim. Over the short span of time of its release, the film has easily earned more than half a billion US dollars from the box-office sale, not to mention the sale of a wide range of associated cultural products and merchandise, which have also equally been a big hit.
In view of the leading role of Disney in the field of education, it was strongly proposed that it enters into a kind of lasting partnership with the greater Moana/Pacific, where a trust fund is set up and scholarships are made available with a mere fraction of the huge proceeds from the film for the education of the youth of the Moana/Pasifiki, who are considered, as the Tongan proverb says, the “reefs of today” but “islands/lands of tomorrow,”
The other crucial question was on the matter of intellectual and cultural property ownership, where this single aspect is merely one of a multiple and infinite forms of knowledge, which regional Moana/Pacific governments can "mine" and turn into pots of gold. With this overly rich collective wealth in sustainable and creative and productive use, there is somehow hope for the regional economies of the Moana/Pacific countries to be readily transformed from a condition of perpetual poverty to a state of eternal prosperity.
By adopting a total rather than a partial approach to the regional Moana/Pacific regional economies, a conscious transformation from the imagined to the real can thus be truly realised by a calculated shift from consumer-led, service-based economies to ones of producer-driven, creative modes of economy. In doing so, the common plight of the Moana/Pacific societies can surely be changed from a situation of dependency and servility to one of autonomy and productivity, as in the prophetic words of the renowned Tongan anthropologist Professor Epeli Hau'ofa.
