Joe Clement and Jan Haaken review the 2016 Disney film, "Moana." The film tells the story of its tituluar character, a Polynesian teenage princess who reclaims her people's long-repressed identity as deep-sea voyagers. Against her father's protests, she leaves the island to find the demi-god Maui, who is said to be the only one who can return the "heart of Tefiti" and vanquish a mysterious blight threatening her people. Joe and Jan consider many of the criticisms and notes of praise that can be found at The Moana Syllabus, focusing on questions of cultural appropriation as well as themes of girl-power, historical trauma, and story-telling values.
The poem heard at the end of the original broadcast, I am Hine I am Moana, can be found on the Youtube channel of Tina Ngata, who also writes a blog, The Non-Plastic Maori.
This version of the interview contains a 10 minute supplement where Jan and Joe dig deeper into points raised in the on-air version.
- KBOO