By Bill Weinberg, Indian Country Today

Story Published: Feb 10, 2010

scene from Avatar

Osiyo,The movie Avatar is about a soldier who is coerced into going to an alien planet inhabited by  alien life-forms. Once there, he finds himself torn between the survival of two worlds, his own and that of the aliens.

In this article, the plot of the movie Avatar has been compared to that of  Ursula K. Le Guin’s book The Word for World is Forest which is similar in nature. In this green and gentle world, all of the aliens are peace-loving and handle their conflicts by ceremonial singing. Soon the “wicked” and “greedy” earth people begin to ravage the beautiful green planet, and to colonize the gentle folk.

By the way, Le Guin’s mother Theodora Kroeber wrote the book  Ishi the Last Yahi: A Documentary History which describes the life of  the Native  Ishi,  the last indigenous man of the Yana tribe.  She has also written other excellent books.

Getting back to  Mr. Weinberg’s article, which also talks about  the real-world hardships of Native people in other countries:

“But while the current FX fest, set on another world in the distant future, is on the tip of the tongue of every teenage popcorn-head and media pundit – whether they are praising or bashing it – the real-world survival struggles of indigenous peoples are safely invisible.

 Last year saw an indigenous uprising in the Peruvian Amazon, over government plans to privatize tribal lands to oil companies – climaxing in the June massacre at Bagua, where the security forces opened fire on a protest roadblock. It made practically no headlines in the U.S.”

Unfortunately, the hardships of indigenous people in other countries, or of American Indians in this country are not the only problems facing Americans. People of all races and cultures fight and die everyday in this country (yes, right here) and their real-life struggles never make the headlines either.

It’s true that we should be aware of the injustices to indigenous people, and help them in their struggles… when we are able. However, we should also be aware of the immediate threat to “all people”.   At the moment, it’s the war we are currently fighting, where soldires of all races are dying, that  makes the headlines in this country. If the situation ever gets out of control, there will be nothing to worry about ever again…for any of us.

The plot in Avatar is age-old (long before Le Guin’s book),  nothing new, but what is new is the technology used to make the Avatars and other 3D imagery. Life is short. It’s a great entertaining movie…period.

Read Mr. Weinberg’s article and decide what you think.