“ Malo fau and many thanks Maui-Tava-He-Ako for the brave effort and great insight in purposely taking a total, reality-based, approach to the totality of all the everlasting and extraordinary deeds and exploits of Maui (as opposed to a partial, bias-led, approach to a partiality of his overly, beautifully rich and diverse activities) -- in all its multi-faceted dimensions, expressions and manifestations -- mainly functioning as an excellent theoretical-practical and cultural-ethnographic critique of the Disney trailer of Moana -- where Maui as a Moana (Oceanic) hero and his many heroic activities are duly, highly problematised in the event -- informed by the so-called "politics of representation" specifically and "politics of tradition" generally.
Now that Maui has been the subject matter of investigation under the creative process of both tufunga hele'uhila or material art of film-making and faiva hele'uhila or performance art of film-acting -- involving the mediation of intersecting or connecting and separating human meanings (as expressed in the many stories of Maui) and intersecting or connecting and separating ata or images by means of mama or light and lanu or colours (expressed by means of representation or expression) -- I am sure playwrights (hopefully some will be from the Great Moana Nui) will soon take them beyond their verbal artistic and literary forms as grand myths and legends now to theatres -- which are merely means where the same subject matters are investigated as either faiva fakaoli, that is, performance art of comedy (involving the mediation of ngalipoto or normality and ngalivale or absurdity, resulting in kata or laughter) or faiva fakamamahi, that is, performance art of tragedy (concerning the mediation of anga'itangata or sociality and anga'imanu or animality, resulting in fakama or shame) or both.
Let's hope that the film-makers and film-actors, like the playwrights, both comedians and tragedians alike, take their arts and crafts seriously by taking cultures and languages seriously -- especially the refined 'ilo or knowledge and poto or skills critically acquired through ako or education as an intellectual and practical process which are historically composed or constituted in fonua-kalatua or culture as a social receptacle and dialectically transmitted or communicated in tala-lea or language as a human vehicle in ta or time and va or space. The academic but prophetic words of wisdom from Maui-Tava-He-Ako is all worth taking heed of seriously!
'Ofa lahi moe hufaki,
Hufanga ”