Fijian Boatmakers to Disney: We Want Compensation for ‘Moana’ 

(left) and traditional Fijian camakau (photo via WCS Fiji).

isn’t even out yet, but some parties have already begun claiming that

a Disney feature scheduled for 2016 release, stole their intellectual property rights. The claims are based on a single piece of

concept art that Disney released last month.

Fijian organizations argue that Disney used the design of a traditional boat called a camakau (pronounced tha-ma-cow) without their permission. Colin Philp, a Mua Voyage coordinator, told the

There are two ways of looking at the traditional canoe being featured in the Disney production. One would be people being happy that the traditional canoes are being featured. But the other way of looking at this is on the intellectual property rights side, that the canoe design or the collaboration of the design is quite valuable.

It’s something that I think they have gone ahead with without any approval from the iTaukei Affairs and the intellectual property owners, being the elders or the canoe builders of Fiji. While it is great that Pacific island voyaging culture is being featured, I do hope the owners (canoe builders) will receive appropriate compensation for use of their canoe design since the movie will make billions of dollars and the people from Korova are not being exploited.

Why contemporary Fijian boatmakers deserve compensation for a centuries-old boat design to which they have no authorship or ownership rights isn’t explained in the piece. From a legal perspective, there’s currently no evidence to suggest that Disney doesn’t have the same rights as the Fijian boatmakers to use a traditional camakau design in their work.

Amazingly, the boat isn’t the only tenuous claim of infringement being made against that piece of

concept art. An anonymous reader sent the image below that alleges Disney used a photo from this website for the background of their

still art, imagine the claims that’ll be made when the actual film is released.

you can trademark traditional boats now ? i thought they are traditional boat for a reason ….

whats next ? German navy suing Hollywood for all the U-sub usage ?

Scandinavian peoples suing over the use of traditional Viking longboats?

I took a picture of a snowflake once, and it looked exactly like a snowflake that quickly passes by in Frozen. I should sue for millions.

Being in New Zealand, I have seen that there seems to be some amount of… resentment from members of the Pasifika population towards Disney for making a story based on their cultural history.

Eh, both claims are silly. People are just desperate for money.

Especially the photo thing… the overlays don’t even match up… sure there is a similar shape that WAS probably referenced from the photo… or the island itself if they went there, but they’re using it as an interesting component in the shape language they’ve created and they aren’t directly stealing the photos.

The lower photo is just… not even present in the painting.

If you’re going to make the photo argument, there are much stronger examples than this.

As for the design of the boats… why don’t we go after any filmmaker making any film that takes place anywhere outside of their own house.

Good companies copy, successful companies steal.

The background claim is obviously ridiculous. But I would not badly judge the Fiji canoe builders so quickly. Tribal cultures have been swallowed and ripped off of their knowledge without receiving a penny for it. The Pharmaceutical Industry makes zillions of bucks registering patents of traditional nature medicines.

Maybe we shall try to exercise our minds a little out of the digital