Moana: Finding True Identity Beyond the Waves

Disney’s Moana (2016) may seem, on the surface, like the story of a young girl who loves the ocean and sets out on an adventure to save her island. But when I think about the film more deeply, Moana’s journey feels like much more than simply crossing the sea. It becomes a journey toward answering two deeply personal questions: “Who am I, and where am I being called to go?”

In many ways, Moana reminds me of myself. I was born and raised in Busan, South Korea. Busan is a coastal city, so the ocean was always familiar to me. I loved going to the beach, being near the water, and spending time around the sea. In the film, Moana has felt drawn to the ocean ever since she was a child.

She is attracted to it almost instinctively, and the ocean itself seems to respond to her as though it already knows who she is. But being called by the ocean does not mean that Moana is fearless from the beginning. Beyond the reef are enormous waves, storms, and unknown dangers, while her father repeatedly warns her never to sail beyond it.

That part of Moana’s story feels very similar to my own journey of leaving Busan for a wider world. I first left Busan and moved to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, where I worked for an advertising video production company. Later, I left Korea altogether and came to Los Angeles to study filmmaking in an even larger and unfamiliar environment. So when I see Moana staring beyond the reef, I do not see only a girl dreaming about adventure. I see the feeling of standing at the edge of what is familiar and wondering whether I am truly ready to go farther.

Watching Moana also makes me think about calling and fear in the Christian life. When God calls us toward a certain path, that does not necessarily mean the journey will be smooth or safe. When I left Busan for Seoul, and later left Korea to live in the United States, neither journey felt completely secure or comfortable. Sometimes following a calling means leaving what is familiar and stepping into waves we cannot control. Perhaps that is why Moana feels so relatable. Many of us know what it is like to stand before something new with both excitement and fear. So today, let us step into the story of Moana together.

The Call of the Ocean: Calling Begins Beyond the Comfort Zone

Motunui, the island where Moana lives, is beautiful and peaceful. As the daughter of the chief, she is being prepared to one day lead her people after her father. From the outside, it seems as though she already has everything she needs. Yet Moana keeps looking beyond the reef. There is a calling in her heart that she cannot fully explain.

Have you ever felt that there was something you needed to do? Or perhaps, while praying, have you ever sensed that God was leading you in a particular direction? I believe many people have experienced something like that. But even when we sense a calling, does that mean it is easy to take the next step? Of course not. Following that call can be frightening.

When Moana first attempts to sail beyond the reef, she is overwhelmed by the waves and fails. She quickly discovers that the ocean cannot be conquered as easily as she imagined. Our lives are often the same. When we try something new, very few of us succeed exactly the way we hoped on the first attempt. Just as Moana is tossed around by the waves, we experience failure, disappointment, and frustration.

The journey of faith can be similar. Sometimes we sense that God is leading us somewhere, yet we are afraid because we do not know what is waiting on the other side. Moses spoke about his weaknesses when God called him. Jeremiah responded that he was too young. The people God called were not necessarily people without fear. They were people who had to take a step forward even while they were afraid. What Moana needed was not for the waves to disappear. She needed to learn how to sail through them.

I think this can also describe the way God trains us. Sometimes, when difficulty comes, we immediately wonder, “Maybe this means I am on the wrong path.” But not every difficulty is a sign that God is rejecting the direction we are taking. Some waves may not be there to turn us back. They may be there to teach us how to navigate the ocean.

Of course, this does not mean that we should stubbornly continue down every path simply because it is difficult. There is a difference between perseverance and refusing to listen to wisdom. As Christians, we need discernment to recognize the difference between God closing a door and God training us through hardship.

Faith does not mean waiting until every problem disappears. Sometimes faith means trusting God enough to keep moving forward, one step at a time, in the middle of those problems.

Discovering True Identity Through the Waves

While watching Moana, I naturally thought of Elsa in Frozen II. Elsa follows the mysterious voice calling her toward Ahtohallan. To reach it, she must fight her way through enormous waves and confront the water spirit, the Nokk. Eventually, through “Show Yourself,” Elsa discovers who she truly is and begins to understand why she was given her unique abilities. Moana goes through a similar journey.

At first, she mainly sees herself as the daughter of the chief of Motunui. But as she crosses the ocean, fails repeatedly, learns how to navigate from Maui, and eventually finds herself alone, she begins to understand herself on a much deeper level. One of the most important moments in the entire film comes after Moana encounters the spirit of her grandmother Tala and sings “I Am Moana.” At that moment, Moana no longer waits for someone else to define her identity. She accepts where she came from, who her ancestors were, and everything she has experienced along the way. Eventually, she declares:

“I am Moana.”

The identity described in Scripture is also not determined merely by the labels the world gives us or by the abilities we possess. Our deepest identity is discovered in our relationship with God. We are not valuable simply because we succeed. We are not valuable because we are more gifted than someone else. When we understand who we are, we begin to see more clearly what we are called to do. Moana discovers her mission as she discovers her identity.

Maui: A Journey We Were Never Meant to Walk Alone

Maui travels alongside Moana throughout much of her journey. When he first appears, Maui is far from being an ideal hero. He proudly boasts about everything he has done for humanity, craves recognition from others, and even tries to abandon Moana and escape on his own. But when we look more closely at his story, we discover deep wounds beneath all of that pride.

Maui was abandoned by his human parents when he was a child. After the gods transformed him into a demigod, he spent his life accomplishing great things in order to be loved and admired by people. His magical fishhook therefore becomes more than a weapon. In many ways, it becomes a symbol of his value and identity.

Yet as Maui travels with Moana, he begins to change. Eventually, he returns to help her even though he knows that his fishhook may be completely destroyed. He confronts Te Kā and creates an opening so that Moana can move forward. This part of the story reminds me of Jesus’ disciples and of Christian community. The disciples were not perfect people from the beginning. They were afraid. They argued about who was the greatest. At crucial moments, they even abandoned Jesus. Yet they were transformed and eventually became people who carried the mission of the gospel together.

Our Christian journey is not something we are meant to complete alone.

Sometimes wounded and imperfect people help one another as they walk the path God has placed before them. The goal is not necessarily to find perfect companions. Perhaps what matters is that we walk together and are changed together.

Look around you. Your family, your friends, and the people in your church community may already be part of that journey. Sometimes you may be Maui for someone else. At other times, someone beside you may become the Maui who helps you keep moving forward. Maui’s story also connects to the theme of identity in another important way. While Moana is learning who she truly is, Maui is learning that his worth does not come from his fishhook, his accomplishments, or the applause of others. His journey is also a journey of discovering who he is apart from what he can prove.

“I Know Who You Are”: The Restoration of a Lost Identity

Then, at the end of the film, we discover its greatest surprise.

For most of the story, Moana believes that Te Kā is an enemy who must be defeated. But when she reaches the place where Te Fiti should be and finds it empty, she notices the spiral-shaped mark on Te Kā’s chest and realizes the truth:

Te Kā is Te Fiti without her heart.

Moana no longer tries to fight her. Instead, she asks the ocean to open a path and slowly walks toward the burning figure of Te Kā. Then she tells her:

“I know who you are.”

What Te Kā needed was not someone powerful enough to destroy her. She needed her lost heart to be restored. She needed to remember who she had originally been.

This moment completes the film’s theme of identity. At first, Moana had to discover who she was. But once she understood her own identity, she was able to look at someone else and say, in effect, “What you have become is not the whole truth about who you are.”

Christian faith also recognizes how deeply sin has distorted humanity and our relationship with God. Yet the gospel does not end with condemnation. Through Christ, God reconciles us to Himself and gives us a new identity. Of course, Te Fiti’s story should not be treated as a direct one-to-one representation of the gospel. But the image of someone who has lost her heart, forgotten who she was, and is restored to what she was created to be naturally makes me think about the restoration of identity we receive in Christ.

Moana does not become a true hero simply because she conquers the ocean. She becomes a hero because she discovers who she is, understands her calling through that identity, and eventually helps another being recover her identity as well.

Perhaps the question we need to ask is not first,

“What must I accomplish?”

but rather,

“Who am I before God?”

When we begin to discover the answer to that question, perhaps we too can take a step beyond the waves we fear.

Comparative Analysis: Three Journeys of Identity

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• 🎬 Movies: Explore Other Faith-Based Film Reflections
• 🌍 Documentaries: Biblical Perspectives on Real-World Issues

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.