Dr. Koehler’s presentation is called “Returning the Heart to Te Fiti: Moana’s Mythic Message”
“I have crossed the horizon to find you. I know your name. They have stolen the heart from inside you, but this does not define you. This is not who you are. You KNOW who you are…who you truly are”
Moana
Disney princesses are a global phenomenon. They are deeply imprinted on our global psyche. Love them or hate them, we can’t ignore them. They are often the targets of criticism, often with reasonable cause. But the truth is that they are far more complex and narratively significant than what the shallow critiques of them would have us believe. Disney princesses reflect what Jungian theorists call the anima consciousness, giving image to Walt Disney’s admonition that his stories gotta have heart, and calling audiences to consider the healing potential of the myth present in each one of Disney’s princess narratives. Princesses reflect the dynamic relationship between the attitudes of the artists at the studio and the people who engage them.
In my opinion, there is no greater archetypal image of the Disney princess as a healer than Moana. She journeys deep into the psyche returning the archetypal heart to Te Fiti and through that journey, she heals herself, her island, and her people. This presentation explores Moana as a character that enters directly into the traditional space of the wounded healer, the shaman, and a character who returns with deep wisdom for her community. I begin with a discussion of the connection between Disney Princesses and the goddess Persephone. Disney’s princesses all follow the same archetypal pattern of love and death, love and transformation.
Then I will examine Moana in the light of that archetypal tradition, arguing that the film is a call to healing through an attempt to use an intersectional lens of archetypal theory and the decolonization of Disney’s myth. Specifically, I will posit the following questions for consideration: what does it mean to return the heart of Te Fiti to Disney’s mythic message? In what ways does this message speak to the absolute necessity of connecting to the archetypal heart from an indigenous perspective to begin that process of decolonization? And how does healing the collective heart prepare the collective psyche for action in this time of cataclysmic climate change?
About Dr. Koehler
Dori Koehler, PhD is a cultural mythologist and scholar of American popular culture. She is a professor of Humanities at Southern New Hampshire University. Her research focuses on Disney, rituals, fandoms, and myths in the American cultural diaspora. Her book The Mouse and the Myth: Sacred Art and Secular Ritual is available through Amazon. She is a regular presenter at the Popular Culture Association’s regional and national conferences where she continues to ask questions about popular culture and American mythic identity in this time of enduring change. She lives in Santa Barbara, California, USA with her husband, Bruce, and their cocker spaniel, Sorcha.