Moana is the chief's daughter within her tribe on the New Zealand island of Motunui. Unlike most girls in her Maori village, she is destined to be the chief of her tribe herself one day, pushing them to further greatness in that insular community. Traveling beyond their surrounding reef is forbidden, but a lack of fish and disease in the plant life caused by a curse has Moana exercising her leadership skills by beyond the horizon to find enough food for all of them. In order to reverse the curse, her grand ocean quest is to find the source of their woes by enlisting the services of a Maui , a shape-shifter demigod who must return a long-lost magical emerald stone he once stole that changed the world for the worse.