Blessed birthday in watching "Moana" in Fiji...

Our youngest in Nadi, Fiji before watching the movie "Moana".

I couldn't believe it when we flew out of Auckland and briefly met Temuera Morrison (Maori actor) who plays the father, Chief Tui, one of the main characters in the movie "Moana". Only Maria (my lil' sister) was game enough to ask him for a selfie and he obliged. I only walked past him in the plane (Air NZ) and shook his hand and said "looking forward to seeing "Moana". He must of thought what wierd random people to be talking to him or maybe he's used to it.

I later found out from my beloved on the Fiji TV news that he had travelled to Fiji for the premiere opening of "Moana" in Suva yesterday and today, for my birthday, I beloved granted my birthday wish of going to see the movie just out of Nadi, in Fiji with our two younger children. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as I had wanted to watch the movie and in NZ we would have had to wait until the December when the World premiere was only a couple of weeks ago in the US.

I must say, before the movie came out, I read through some of the critics various blogs and posts etc. of the movie and even those who said to ban the movie in protest due to intellectual property rights etc. the muddling of all Pacific cultures into one melting pot and I can also understand the anger at having a multinational corporate group like "Disney" raking in the profits from such a movie but for me...

I absolutely loved it! yes, as an academic, writer, storyteller, artist, Pasifika woman, poet etc. I definitely am not a pureist when it comes to culture and I cringed at certain parts of the storytelling and ideas such as the size of Mauis short/thick torso but all in all I listened very carefully and watched, cried, laughed and smiled when watching what I thought was a well crafted story that had so many elements of so many different Pacific Islands, that if you didn't know how to differentiate between the different cultures, this movie would definitely not tell you how to do that - that would have to be from your own personal research.

What I thought really spoke for me was that it esteemed our Pasifika ancestors and set the story straight that it wasn't Captain Cook who "discovered" the various Pasifika Islands as they had been well discovered many more hundreds of years by Pasifika ancestors who were amazing navigators and seafaring peoples. It also reiterated the importance of telling "our stories" that I have found so fascinating to re-tell for the next generations.

The movie also shared various elements from my Samoan heritage from the "Cheehoo!" of Maui's catch cry, the "tuiga" of Moana's tupou (Samoan princess-like status) headress, to Chief Tui's tatau (tatoos) and even listening to some of the lyrics was simple amazing.

I also liked how Maui played by Dwayne Johnson was so cocky as I thought Maui to have been as the Pasifika demigod and "trickster" as I knew growing up and it was also very cheeky in the ways that I know many Samoan young men are too :) Even the Samoan fale (traditional house) was incorporated with the sinnet lashings was simply amazing. There were many other elements from the Maori, Tokelauan, Fiji, Cook Islands etc. that were also incorporated into the movie but you have to ask someone from those Islands to find out.

The whole cinematography of the movie was beautiful. From my own artistic viewpoint, I'v always been drawn into the beauty of the Pacific Islands and even here in Fiji, I marvel at the beauty of nature, the brightly contrasting colours of the flora with the golden or black sands of beaches and the azure blues of the waters. It's also the way that I paint with contrasting colours of the sea, land and flowers. Just simply beautiful and the movie does justice to the beauty that I know, love and treasure of the Islands.

Even the pull of the sea to the character Moana, I have often felt that, even as a youngster growing up in NZ, of loving the water, going to beaches during the summer, of swimming and eating seafoods, fish either in NZ or in the Islands as I was brought up by my Samoan born parents. I love kayaking, paddling in waka ama or outrigging and even tried Dragon boating.

Even yesterday my beloved and I ate locally caught and cooked octopus, I mean, it helps if you know your sea foods and to me the movie helped to define me as a Pasifika person within so many ways of knowing. The sea creatures and other fauna were also incorporated in the tapa type prints, the weaving etc. so many motifs were featured throughout the movie that if you didn't know what the Pacific Islands were all about, this movie definitely gave you a sense of what it is or may have been like.

To all the "haters" out there, I would say don't take it too seriously, people will take whatever they want to get from the film but I definitely didn't want to judge the movie before I saw it as the critics had their own opinions but for me, the time has come of age in that the movie gave a sense that "we" Pasifika peoples history as brilliant sea navigators and is being taken seriously with Taika Waititi (Maori actor, producer, writer etc.) behind the original script of the movie and the rewriting of history acknowledges the mastery of Pasifika peoples to where we are today.

So Happy birthday to me and go see "Moana" with your families and enjoy!...