"…it’s an epic, or even mythic, adventure set around 2000 years ago and across a series of islands in the South Pacific.
The lead character, Moana Waialiki is the only daughter of a Chief in a long line of navigators. She’s really a bit of nerd, but a nerd about sea voyaging, and when her family need her help, she sets off on an epic journey. Some of the other characters are demi-gods and spirits drawn from real mythology."
There has been no officially released concept art of Moana yet, and we know literally nothing about this film but it has certainly been arousing the interest of Disney fans. Many are hoping that after Disney's long reign of white representation that even more cultures and countries will be represented, which explains why everyone is so excited for Moana to be released as a woman colour (many fans even hope she'll be a Disney princess). But of course where there is excitement, there is also some anxiety. Representation is important and many fans (and of course Polynesians from every different Polynesian culture) are nervous about Moana. Representation is a double-edged sword, it can be very good and bring awareness but it's possible if not enough research is done Moana could be a botched-up, bastardized representation of Polynesian culture. It's difficult to know anything about the film this early of course, and without any proper setting to which Polynesian culture and location Disney is referring to it's difficult to make accurate fan art. Polynesians aren't just one group of people together who wear tube tops and grass skirts all the time, and we certainly shouldn't make it a stereotype. I hope any artist reading this will consider doing research before doing any Moana fan art.
Anyways, I have made 3 pictures of my concept of Moana. I really hope she has short/medium hair! And I hope her body won't be a size 0 with impossibly tiny waists like a good chunk of the Disney princesses. I know many of us fans are hoping she'll be quite voluminous. I'm personally hoping she'll be busty with some wide hips! As important as representation of culture, so is appearances/bodies! I really want more variety in all media, and I hope Moana will have some kind of beauty marks on her face. Disney tries to keep things symmetrical and at most have freckles, but I sincerely hope they'll venture out of this idea of a perfectly symmetrical face. I love the "imperfections" and "flaws" of people.
Goodness, look at how long this post is, anyways here is my own Moana fan art/concept art thus!
I'll admit that when I made the first two images I didn't have a specific Polynesian culture in mind so unfortunately I unintentionally contributed to the Polynesia = Grass skirt, random flower in hair, tube top stereotype so I sincerely apologize for that!
This time I did my research for making this design! Not knowing where Moana was set, I decided to base this off of Maori culture. It's just such a beautiful culture and I hope I captured this right, although I didn't give her a moko so I may add that later, and I've been told by some fellow Polynesians since Moana is the chief's daughter (aka a person of significance) she would mostly likely a cloak for formal events and a poi. Sadly, someone also told me Moana may not be from the Maori culture at all as apparently they don't have an 'l' in their alphabet, hmm, time to research more Polynesian cultures!
All my Moana art work can be found on my moanaswaialiki blog or my art blog
