Avatar: The Way of Water recently ranked as the sixth-highest grossing film in all of cinematic history. Like thousands of other Kiwis around New Zealand, you may have found yourself in your local Hoyts this summer enjoying a box of popcorn and the long-awaited sequel. It’s also likely that many of you picked up on the influence that Māori culture played on the Water Na’vi, who were prominently featured, or appropriated, in the film. And while many praised the filmmaker for taking such an interest in Māori culture, along with casting Māori actor Cliff Curtis, it leads to a bigger question: what is Māori representation in Hollywood? And why should you give a shit?
Let’s get this out of the way: there are some problematic elements to James Cameron’s Avatar, and James Cameron himself. Cameron shared in 2010 that a “driving force” in the development of Avatar stemmed from wondering where the Lakota Sioux might be if they had “fought a lot harder” against colonisation. As if, what, they just rolled over? What if the Jews had fought the Nazis harder, is that what Inglorious Bastards was about?
So let’s discuss the fact that in the movie, the Indigenous peoples do fight back “harder”, but they’re only successful because of the involvement of their white saviour in the form of Jake Sully. We don’t need any more white saviours. If that isn’t enough of a racist Hollywood cliché, the second film’s Water Na’vi are based specifically on the Māori people: from the mythical whale-like Tulkun narrative to the misappropriation of tā moko. Of course, this is all “respectful representation” until it becomes a blatantly ignorant TikTok trend in the form of a poorly-designed tā moko filter.
So, what gives? The Avatar franchise has proven to be problematic, but so is every second film produced in Hollywood. What does it matter if there’s another one on top of the shit heap? Well, for us Kiwis, Māori culture is not foreign. While every person has varying degrees of experience with Māori culture, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find someone who has lived in New Zealand for over a year and hasn’t heard the phrase “kia ora”.
Yes, there’s a lot left to be desired, but we’ve all heard of films such as Boy, Whale Rider, and, of course, Once Were Warriors. Yet, it’s very hard to imagine your average American sitting down for their Saturday movie night and flicking past Twilight, The Notebook, and Mission Impossible before landing on Once Were Warriors for a casual watch. Māori people and culture have practically no media representation in countries like the USA, and so not only does your average American know virtually nothing about Aotearoa and its people, they also have very little reason to care at all.
But what about us? Why should we care? Well, if there’s no reliable representation of Māori people, or even Indigenous folks altogether in Hollywood, then the only representation anyone will see is in films like Avatar, where Indigenous culture is literally represented as an alien culture, because all too often it IS alien to the white directors and writers. It’s the same noble savage trope, rinsed and repeated. Even if the aliens are mystical and elegant, and even if the savages are noble, Indigenous culture is still cast as an other, a foreign body for the white knight to explore and save from the encroachment of his own people.
There are other pitfalls here, too. If this representation is all anyone sees of us, then they might start to buy into these stereotypes, like POC needing a white saviour, or even see tā moko as an accessory. And to make matters worse, because the Māori population is so small, there is very little that can be done to push back against Hollywood bigwigs like James Cameron.
Just a hundred years ago, Māori culture was ruthlessly erased from New Zealand society in almost every way, and labelled as “primitive” and “uncivilised” - similar to how other Indigenous cultures were received. This effectively minimises the cultural genocide of Indigenous people in the name of colonisation. Acknowledgement of genocide against Indigenous people worldwide is still lacking, while the Western world happily consumes every digestible, white-washed feature of Indigenous culture. And we’re redesigned as aliens because that’s more palatable than the truth: that we were here, we are still here, and we’re just as human as you are. It only seems foreign because so many of us, so much of us, was lost.
So today we reemerge from the brink of cultural extinction, as - what? As the framework for Western sci-fi plotlines, with token Indigenous actors to tick the inclusivity box. So, let’s look at how we fit into Avatar 2.
The Metkayina clan, or reef guardians, are portrayed with Indigenous features. Their characters are adorned with cloaks that resemble korowai, with paua shell ornaments and similar tattoo patterns to those of tā moko. The Metkayina people’s view of the environment and their relationships with Tulkun aligns a bit too well with te ao Māori and ideas about the environment. And while James Cameron undoubtedly did go through a cultural consultation process, it’s safe to say that there should have been more Indigenous actors filling those roles of the Metkayina people.
But what about Taika Waititi? Sure, Taika is a Māori director who has a lot of sway in Hollywood. He’s directed films such as the most recent Thor movies and Jojo Rabbit, both of which were seen all over the world. But his films involving Māori identity, such as Boy and, to some extent, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, are much less mainstream. While they may be classics to us, they aren’t to those in other countries. And while he did do a fantastic job in Thor: Love and Thunder, it’s a little bit more difficult to squeeze in Māori representation into a film about a Norse god with a magic hammer, though he did try.
So, what’s the solution? Faithful representation. Come on, Hollywood, Indigenous people have been telling you exactly what you need to do for decades: hire Indigenous directors and actors. Yes, sure, Avatar 2 features Māori actor Cliff Curtis which is fantastic – but what the fuck is Kate Winslet doing there? Give a platform for Māori and Indigenous people to tell their own stories, if you’re so interested in them. Hollywood presents to the rest of the world all the information about Māori people they are likely going to get. This makes faithful representation even more important.
Sorry James Cameron, but, VFX mastery aside, Avatar leaves a lot to be desired as far as faithful representation goes. Because unfortunately, right now you’re all we’ve got.
Visuals: 10/10
Storyline: 4.5/10