‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ has garnered much appreciation since its release and critics have been showering praises over the new release. The film has been winning hearts across the globe. However, not everyone seems to be happy with the second instalment in the Avatar franchise.
Despite James Cameron revealing that the film is a fictional representation of the history of North and South America in the early Colonial period, many have accused the director of promoting a white man’s saviour complex through Avatar 2: The Way of Water.
Avatar was a White savior story at its core and James Cameron said the Lakota should have “fought harder” with the foresight that their descendants would all be suicidal. I won’t be seeing the new one. It does nothing for Native Americans but suck oxygen for itself at our expense https://t.co/A1Lp5rw66f
— Brett Chapman (@brettachapman) December 17, 2022
Brett Chapman, a Native American civil right attorney says that the film is, “a White saviour story at its core and James Cameron said the Lakota should have “fought harder” with the foresight that their descendants would all be suicidal. I won’t be seeing the new one. It does nothing for Native Americans but suck oxygen for itself at our expense.”
Well, the controversy doesn’t end there.
Many Native American influencers have called for a complete boycott of Avatar: The Way Of Water with very strong terminologies about the nature of its plot and storyline.
Another native American influencer Yue tweeted, “Join Natives and other Indigenous groups around the world in boycotting this horrible and racist film. Our cultures were appropriated in a harmful manner so as to satisfy some white man’s saviour complex.”
Do NOT watch Avatar: The Way of Water
— 🌽Asdzáá Tłʼéé honaaʼéí🌽(She/Her)🌽 (@asdza_tlehonaei) December 18, 2022
Join Natives & other Indigenous groups around the world in boycotting this horrible & racist film. Our cultures were appropriated in a harmful manner to satisfy some 🏳 man's savior complex.
No more Blueface!
Lakota people are powerful! pic.twitter.com/NmHVU565u3
Many have even dug out controversial interviews of James Cameron and investigated where Cameron reportedly reveals that he spent lots of time with Amazon tribes in an effort to understand more about the history of the indigenous people of North America, which he had termed as a “dead-end society.”
The Guardian report from 2010 mentioned James Cameron’s efforts to oppose the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, which led to the displacement of Indigenous people living in the Amazon. The article mentioned Cameron speaking about how he learned to reflect on the indigenous people in North America and said the Native American history was the ‘driving force’ behind writing the script for the 2009 film.
“I felt like I was 130 years back in time watching what the Lakota Sioux might have been saying at a point when they were being pushed and they were being killed and they were being asked to displace and they were being given some form of compensation,” Cameron told the Guardian.
He further added, “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.”
Avatar: The Way of Water brings back Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver from the first film while also adding Kate Winslet this time around.
Image Source: Instagram