Lāiana Kanoa-Wong talks about being a cultural consultant for Moana 2
Lāiana Kanoa-Wong recalls sitting with his ʻohana and friends to watch the Walt Disney animated film, Moana, shown in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi at the Bishop Museum in June 2018.
Two years earlier, Moana first hit the theaters telling the story of a Polynesian teenager who sets sail on a quest to save her people.
“I was watching it, and I was mesmerized,” said Kanoa-Wong. “We were watching this story of – it was us, it was our people, and it was our cultures. I was seeing elements of Samoa culture, Maori culture, Tahitian culture and I was thinking about how proud I was and then hearing our ʻōlelo on top of that I was like, oh, there’s something special to this and I just became more and more excited.”
Today, Kanoa-Wong is among the consultants in the Oceanic Cultural Trust for the development of Moana 2 – the highest-grossing Thanksgiving release in U.S. history.
A Hawaiian cultural specialist at Kamehameha Schools, Kanoa-Wong grew up speaking ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi as a student of the kula kaiapuni Hawaiian language immersion program. He graduated from Ke Kula Kaiapuni ʻo Ānuenue and holds a bachelor’s degree in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi and a master’s degree in education from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
While his ʻōlelo schooling proved to be of value, Kanoa-Wong said he never realized it would happen in the film industry and recalled how its use in the world was once questioned.
“Our families didn’t know, because I can remember my tūtū them, they were like, ʻwhy would you put Lāiana in kaiapuni? There’s no jobs out there for people in kaiapuni.’ And then here I am today working and doing stuff at Disney, sharing our stories because I went to kaiapuni, because of my background in language and culture,” said Kanoa-Wong. “For our keiki, it’s limitless.”
According to the Walt Disney Animation Studios, two of Moana 2’s directors are of Samoan descent and were adamant about the authenticity of Oceania histories and culture when developing the first Moana. It established its Oceanic Cultural Trust, a collective of cultural advisors from across Oceania headed by Kalikolehua Hurley of Mililani, Oʻahu. The Oceanic Cultural Trust reached out to additional cultural advisors for Moana 2.
“To have a seat at the table felt really special, it felt maikaʻi,” Kanoa-Wong said. “They’re open to hearing about our perspectives. They’re open to taking it in and using it as guiding stars as they were navigating to create those stories. I’m just really proud to be a part of it because it’s a continuation of the journey.”
Kanoa-Wong has also worked as the sole consultant on NCIS: Hawaiʻi for 26 episodes and been involved in two shorts, Hae Hawaiʻi and E Mālama Pono, Willy Boy.
He said it was also humbling and exciting to be a part of Disney’s Oceanic Cultural Trust for Moana 2, in which he participated in the sharing of ideas to constructively move the Moana storytelling process forward.
“They’ve been preparing for their moments and what they do in their spaces and so it’s nice to be amongst awesome Indigenous leaders,” he shared. “When I’m doing things like NCIS or other projects, I’m like the main consultant. To me, that’s not a winning formula. It’s almost like we’ve got to go back to the ʻaha (assembly) style where we have a council of us who are helping to provide feedback. The fact that a corporation like Disney valued having multiple perspectives from different island hui showed growth in the industry.”
Kanoa-Wong says their collective goal “to do things right” is a concept that should be replicated.
The sharing of how one culture approaches a situation differently or the similar words used reaffirmed the connection of people bound by the Pacific, the world’s largest body of ocean.
Kanoa-Wong compared it to the 13th Annual Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) that took place in June 2024 when people from across Oceania nations gathered in Hawaiʻi to honor and share traditional cultural practices. Despite the evolution of cultures to place, voyaging is a foundation from which all derive.
“We know that we’re all one big ‘ohana. We know that we all have a very unique perspective to add and share,” he said. “We trust in the guidance and leaders of our kumu and our mentors and the people that have been around us in voyaging, in history, in education, in language.”
Using FestPAC and Moana as examples of how far Polynesians have come from a colonial and oppressed past, Kanoa-Wong lights up when talking about what children today have before them due to the work that has been done to preserve and perpetuate cultural practices.
“A film like Moana shows that there’s so many unique connections coming to life, and for our keiki, they’ll know nothing different,” he said.
Hōkūleʻa is credited for the revival of voyaging societies across the Pacific. Polynesian Voyaging Society Master Navigator Nainoa Thompson was also a consultant on Moana 2, to provide his voyaging expertise and navigation philosophy.
“Nainoa talks about [that] we’re all navigators. We’re all navigators of our own lives and our own canoe,” recalled Kanoa-Wong. “What is our canoe? Our canoe is our body, our mind. But also, our canoe is our family. Our canoe is our community. And as we ascend into leadership roles, how do we navigate?”
For the navigational challenges that the character Moana faces, Kanoa-Wong believes she stokes inspiration.
“All of us are navigating and trying our best,” he said. “We can draw from our ancestral wisdom to guide us forward today, to use it as a platform to build from as we move forward in the future.”
