Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: Birgit Krippner for the New York Times
Allan Tipene and his wife, Desiree Tipene, with their children and others in New Zealand. Ms. Tipene called “Moana” a “funny and beautiful” way for her children to connect with their culture. 

The cartoon film Moana is playing a role in the push to preserve indigenous languages — one language in particular.

Charlotte Graham writes at the New York Times about the Moana translation being shown in New Zealand.

“The families lined up at the theater above a shopping mall here in New Zealand’s biggest city [for] a film unlike any they had ever seen — the Disney hit ‘Moana,’ translated into the indigenous language of New Zealand. …

“About 125,000 of New Zealand’s 4.7 million people speak the Maori language, or ‘te reo Māori,’ as it is widely rendered here. There are concerns that numbers are declining, putting it at risk of dying out. But with one in three Maori people in New Zealand younger than 15, experts said the chance for youth to see a wildly popular movie in their own words could turn the language’s fortunes around after more official efforts faltered. …

“ ‘Moana’ [is] the story of a Polynesian princess, Moana, on an adventure with her chicken, Heihei, and the demigod Maui …

“Many of those attending in Manukau, in southern Auckland, said they had never seen a film at the theater entirely in their language before.

“Several of the families there came from nearby Manurewa, a district usually in the news for unemployment, homelessness and poverty. Parents entering the theater said they relished the chance for their children to see themselves and their language reflected on the big screen, in a different kind of story that they hoped would instill pride in being Maori. …

“ ‘Language is the expression of a culture and a race of people,’ [Haami Piripi, a former head of the government body charged with the promotion of te reo Māori as a living language] said. ‘To retain your language is an emblem of survival through history. If you’ve still got your language now, you have the key to your culture.’ …

“Katarina Edmonds, a senior lecturer in Maori education at the University of Auckland, and one of three people who translated the film, said the team worked not only to find the exact equivalents of words in the Disney script, but also to remain true to the Maori language and tikanga, or cultural values.”

More at the New York Times, here.