Avatar 2 and Native Americans
Avatar 2 and Native Americans are on the news all day long. Not everybody desires to return to Pandora. The LA Times reports that a number of Native American organizations are opposing James Cameron’s Avatar sequel’s release due to recently surfaced director’s comments. In 2010, Cameron ran a campaign against the construction of the enormous Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Amazon and discussed how learning from native people gave him the idea for Avatar.
“This was a driving force for me in the writing of Avatar — I couldn’t help but think that if they [the Lakota Sioux] had had a time-window and they could see the future … and they could see their kids committing suicide at the highest suicide rates in the nation … because they were hopeless and they were a dead-end society — which is what is happening now — they would have fought a lot harder.”
Here is the Twitter Post of a Native American
Indigenous leaders like Yuè Begay demanded a boycott of the movie in response to Cameron’s insulting remarks about the Sioux people. Smith College professor Joanna Brewer encouraged viewers to boycott the movie as well. It seems that James Cameron created Avatar to motivate all of my departed ancestors to “fight harder.” Put that savior complex to bed, buddy. And everyone, please watch a genuine native film rather than that poorly appropriated blue trash”. The film has already earned $435 million worldwide over the past weekend, but organizations have recommended alternatives if moviegoers wanted another option to watch movies that were influenced by Native American culture.
