“They’re from Here!“ : Children’s localisation of Disney’s Moana in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article examines how children in Aotearoa New Zealand interpret cultural representations in Disney’s Moana (2016), focusing on the ways they position its characters and narrative in relation to their own lives, identities, and environments. Drawing on qualitative data from 29 children aged six to twelve across 22 ethnic backgrounds, the study examines how children mediate the film through place-based, relational, and sensory processes. Rather than encountering Moana as a distant cultural text, children localised the story within their everyday worlds. Many participants described Moana and Maui as “from here”, using visual cues, family parallels, and school-based experiences to embed the story within their lived geographies. Others reflected on storytelling authority, raising questions about voice, learning, and cultural authorship. Grounded in Martín-Barbero’s cultural mediation framework, the study shows how global media texts are reworked through children’s localised interpretive practices. The article foregrounds children’s interpretive media agency by showing how place, relationships, and everyday experience shape the reception of global children’s media.