Visualising a Drowning World: The Musical Melancholia of Moana: The Rising of the Sea

Abstract

Threatened by rising sea levels, the consequences of climate change in the Pacific Islands region have unfolded through the Islanders’ loss of ancestral land and Indigenous culture. In this precarious context, by stressing the importance of recognising nonhuman agency and reviving the ancestors’ navigational skills, the musical performance Moana: The Rising of the Sea (2013) highlights the symbolic vaka as a means of many Pacific Islanders’ survival through purposeful mobility. Written by Vilsoni Hereniko and directed by Peter Rockford Espiritu, Moana illustrates these Islanders’ sense of loss and a passionate appeal to world leaders to adopt decisive action against climate change. It manifests their Indigenous cultural practices through an interplay between human and nonhuman agencies. This paper attempts an ‘ecodramaturgical’ analysis of Moana to examine how it embodies a cultural movement to reawaken these Pacific Islanders’ cultural values and traditional knowledge, articulating their demand for climate justice.