Off to save the world

Moana, the new Disney protagonist, is the curly-haired, dark-skinned daughter of the chieftain of one of the islands in the middle of the Pacific.

And over the course of the past two weeks, I’ve had people approach me and tell me I remind them so much of the character.

To which I reply with a swat or a middle finger, of course (depending on our closeness). I am beyond horrible at the receiving end of compliments.

It should come as no surprise to anyone, really. Scientific studies have shown that much of this country’s inhabitants had Austronesian people as their ascendants, the latter having sailed onboard boats known as balangays across the Pacific, toward the archipelago I now consider home. This explains the similarities in built, in skin colour, in customs, even in livelihoods.

This explains, further, the fact of our love for the sea. It’s in our collective histories — where traditional nomads would travel afoot, these people would do the same by boat, carried by the winds and waves, guided by the stars; their skins leathered, their hair bleached, their palms and soles cracked dry by the salt in the sea and the sands of the shore. They have the ability to live off of coconuts, the creativity that comes with seeing a piece of wood and transforming it into a vessel for transportation. They have with them the friendliness with the sun, the peace with the sea.

In one of the scenes of the movie, Moana’s grandmother tells her granddaughter that when she dies, she will become like the eel she had tattooed on her back.

I have a tattoo of the rivers on my back, etched like mountains ranges, symbolising waves. When I got it, I was told it meant life and the adventure that comes with it, because in the same manner that rivers form into seas which traverse into the oceans, so does life change, reshape, reform, and give more life. Perhaps, when I die, I too (perhaps ironically, but only in the ironic way that the universe can understand) will be a source of life. Or so one can hope.

So, no.

I’m not Moana.

But I, too, am a curly-haired girl.

I, too, am not a princess.

I, too, want to (and will!) change the world.

Disney did good, I’d like to think.