My views on Avatar

James Camaron’s Avatar is a big hit this year and surely will be bagging some Oscars . The film is a sci fi based around the planet Pandora , where humans have set up their new home . A company has been exploiting the natural resources of the planet and mining in territories considered sacred by the native Na’vis . The Na’vi was hostile towards the humans , so they come up with the AVATAR program where humans controlled Biodroids that were created using the gnome of both humans and na’vi . It was through these avatars that humans planned to win the hearts and minds of the native population and eventually , peacefully make them relocate , away from mineral rich areas .

This story seems to me to be an echo of the conquest and exploitation of the Americas , and also a little environmental message . Just like the European invasion , the human intrusion was carried out of companies trying to grab lands to exploit for their richness . During the late 19th centuries , the native americans were constantly being evicted by the Americans as the USA continued to expand westwards . In many cases the hills and mountains where the natives had settled , were rich with gold and silver deposits . As a result the american government , with the backing of large companies began to relocate the natives . They were taught a western ways of life and as a result lost most of their heritage .

Unlike the Egyptian or Roman civilizations , the native american civilizations of north america didnot have the habit of writing down their own history and customs , and each of their cultures were different , from the Creek , the Inuit , the Cherokee , the Apache . When the bond between the generations were broken and the children no longer practiced the ways of their ancestors , the culture died out .

Like the natives , the na’vis too believed that every living creature , and non-living creature had a soul and all these souls of the planet was bound to the Great Mother . When we look at our own history and identity we find that almost all the old cultures had a similar view . What shocked and saddened me most was when Sam Worthington spoke to the sacred tree telling it that there is no speck of green on Earth and we have killed our own Mother .