I think I started writing because no one had ever told me you can write about the things you know in a musical. They don't have to come from some far off place.
Lin-Manuel Miranda[Opetaia Foa'i] brought in the melody and the lyrics, but the lyrics were in Tokelauan, and so, we talked about what it could mean and whether this could be the ancestor song. So, I started writing English lyrics to sort of the same melody.
Lin-Manuel Miranda