Thoughts on one Disney song inevitably lead to thoughts on another. This one—the song that eventually became "An Innocent Warrior" in the 2016 film Moana—has an interesting backstory: a journey of transformation from sorrow to hope, and ultimately to restoration.
It started as a song called "Loimata e Maligi" ("Let the Tears Fall Down") on the 2002 album Nukukehe by the band Te Vaka—an amazing group of musicians from Pacific island nations. Te Vaka's vibrant music often pulses with polyrhythmic beats, but "Loimata e Maligi" floats in a calm, percussionless space: it's a song of mourning and remembrance, a tribute to 19 teenage girls who perished in a fire at a high school dormitory in Tuvalu in 2000. Singing in Tuvaluan over pensive chords and vocal harmonies, Olivia Foa'i delivers a melody that feels like both lullaby and lament:
Let the tears flow down
My heart is filled with sorrow
For we have lost
Many loved ones
Let the healing flow over me
And wash this pain away
For we have lost
Many of our young women
Years later Te Vaka found themselves collaborating on the music for Moana, and the song gained new life. If you've seen the film you may recall the charming scene below, in which a sentient ocean greets and entertains the toddler Moana, as if recognizing the hope she represents to her people. The accompanying song sounds much like "Loimata e Maligi," but bandleader Opetaia Foa'i has rewritten the lyrics (now sung beautifully by Vai Mahina):
Your eyes so full of wonder
Your heart an innocent warrior
There's a task for you
Our dearest one
Let it flow over you
This freedom you feel
And your deep thoughts
Our young girl
I love how the new lyrics map onto the old ones and retain their cadence and flow, the similar-sounding words and phrases anchoring the song to its past. It doesn't feel like an erasure to me; instead it's as if the spirit of the old mournful lullaby endures, with the lost schoolgirls looking on as the song tells the story of a young woman offering new hope. In a way it's a musical reflection of one of the film's main themes: that the way forward is neither by disregarding your traditions nor by clinging blindly to them, but by rooting yourself in the best values of those who've gone before while charting a new path with fresh eyes.
(Interestingly, the lyrics on Foa'i's personal website include a stanza that doesn't seem to be in any recorded version of the song but expresses more urgency about the future: "You'll come to understand / there's not much time left / to save the future / of all our islands.")
There's one more musical transformation in store. At the climactic confrontation between Moana (now grown, and voiced by Auli'i Cravalho) and the lava demon Te Kā, we hear the strains of "Loimata e Maligi"/"An Innocent Warrior" again. But this time it's interwoven with a new melody, "Know Who You Are," sung by Moana as she recognizes the true divine spirit within her apparent enemy:
You can watch the rest of the scene unfold here. Moana returns the demon's stolen heart and restores her to what she has always been: the island goddess Te Fiti, who brings riotous, verdant life back to her blighted realm. And a song that began as a lament for lost life now heralds life's return. It's an arc I'd wish for all of us, as we emerge from the ruins of the world we knew and begin to transform all this sorrow into something good. BONUS: For another look at the song's trajectory, here's a live performance of the original "Loimata e Maligi," with an introduction by Opetaia Foa'i—and, years later, a performance of "An Innocent Warrior" and "Know Who You Are," backed by New Zealand's Orchestra Wellington. And for good measure here's a rousing live version of Moana's showstopper "We Know the Way," complete with traditional dancers and Te Vaka's distinctive log drums—because I can't tell you about Te Vaka and not give you a taste of them playing at full strength. To learn much more about the band and the cultures they draw from, as well as to purchase music, visit Te Vaka's official website.
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