Avatar: The Way of Water, directed by James Cameron, is now in theatres and has already grossed $300 million worldwide. Now, filmmaker James Cameron is facing accusations of Native American and Indigenous cultural appropriation, and a boycott movement has been launched to encourage people to boycott the sci-fi thriller.
The filmmaker has been accused of copying
The sequel, like the 2009 film Avatar, mostly continues the story of colonisers taking over territory and resources from tribes. The colonisers in the sequel are shown to be humans who require a perfectly inhabitable world because Earth’s resources are getting exhausted. The filmmaker has been accused of copying the customs and history of several Indigenous tribes in order to create a film with a predominantly white cast.
Yuè Begay, a Native American influencer and Indigenous Pride LA co-chair tweeted, “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!”
More than 40,000 people have liked the tweet. Begay also brought to light a 2010 interview that director James Cameron gave to a portal, in which the Oscar-winning filmmaker stated that he spent a lot of time with Amazon tribes to study about the history of Indigenous peoples in North America, which he referred to as a “dead-end culture.”
Native American attorney also tweeted, “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.”
Avatar: The Way of Water is widely distributed film
Avatar: The Way of Water reunites Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver from the previous film while also introducing Kate Winslet. With 52,000 screens worldwide, it is the most widely distributed film in history.
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