You have probably heard by now that James Cameron's hit movie Avatar is now the highest-grossing movie in history. Of the top 20, (mostly starring Harry Potter, Jack Sparrow, and the Lord of the Ring's hobbits, with Batman and Spiderman thrown in), Avatar is one of the only that can be said to present a straightforward cause-driven message: Greedy industries looking for profit should not ruin the cultures and homes of defenseless indigenous people.
The movie is set on the fictional, whimsical planet of Pandora, but the issues it addresses are anything but alien. The U.K.-based charity Survival International, which supports tribal people worldwide, has brought attention to the eerie similarity between the predicament of Pandora’s Na’vi and the plight of Earth’s Dongria Kondh tribe in India, whose story you can watch below:
The charity describes how the sacred forests of the Dongria Kondh, just like those of the imaginary Na’vi, are under threat by a mining company, in this case Vedanta Resources. The mountain, which the Dongria Kondh describe as a form of deity, contains a rich stream of the mineral bauxite, or aluminum ore. According to Amnesty International, and to the video above, the local communities are already threatened by the air and water pollution perpetrated by the company. Amnesty is urging the Indian government to withdraw the clearance granted for the mine until measures are taken to uphold their international human rights obligations.
Vedanta has defended its project in the area, claiming that it will serve to stimulate the economy and uplift the rural community. But the people in the video “Mine – Story of a Sacred Mountain,” don’t seem very uplifted.
Survival posted an advertisement in the Hollywood entertainment magazine Variety, saying, “Appeal to James Cameron. Avatar is fantasy…and real.” We’ll have to wait and see whether the message of this film proves to be more than just Pocahontas in Space.
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