Indigenous Literatures, Multinaturalism, and Avatar: The Emergence of Indigenous Cosmopolitics

Abstract

Light and color are often the only signs of these lives invisible to the unaided eye. James Cameron's Avatar (2009) premiered to some predictably scathing reviews comparing the film to Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990) and Disney's Pocahontas (1995). Set 145 years in the future, the film tells the story of the Na'vi, 10-foot-tall blue-skinned humanoids living on an Earth-like moon called Pandora in a monolithic “Hometree.” Humans have come from Earth intent on mining “unobtainium,” a rare mineral located beneath Hometree and considered the solution to Earth's energy crisis. Hero Jake Sully, a parapalegic ex-marine, is hired to gather intelligence and given a genetically engineered Na'vi body, or avatar, to pilot in the alien Pandoran atmosphere. When he is attacked by wild animals, he is saved by Neytiri, the daughter of the Na'vi chief, and they later fall in love. Neytiri teaches Jake that Hometree and all living beings are alive with the spirit of “Eywa,” described as a “network of energy” represented as bioluminescent, brightly colored seeds, trees, and animals. Given this romantic plot and luminous setting, it is not surprising that most reviews referenced the commonplace figure of the “ecological Indian” in movies that seek absolution for the sins of industrialization and evoke desire for the re-enchantment of nature (Newitz n.p.).

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