A Comparison of the Australian Aborigines and the Na'Vi in 'Avatar'

As a result of the Europeans killing their people and stealing their land, the Aborigines did fight back. Even though settlers seemingly had much better weapons, Indigenous Australians had a much better understanding of the land they lived on and had other means of resisting the ways of the Europeans. Pemulwuy, for example, was respected by both his people, and the white men who opposed him. He fought for the lives of his people, to protect them and preserve the beliefs and practices that the Europeans wanted to eradicate. The Indigenous Australians’ culture is still often taught and practiced these days, so even though Pemulwuy was murdered in 1802, along with many others, the impact of their efforts was necessary for the development of the Australian multicultural society.

Describe and explain Australian Indigenous people’s historical and contemporary connections to land and sea and the resources derived from them. How have settler discourses associated with colonization affected these connections to country?

There is recurrent tension between the maintenance of Indigenous culture and essentially assimilating to the rules and regulations of the predominantly white society in Australia (Dockrey, 2010). Australia’s Aboriginal culture represented the oldest surviving culture in the world (Aboriginal culture, 2017). The traditions include having at least 270 different language groups and 500 dialects in the indigenous community (Shareourpride.org.au, n.d). The vast amount of languages and dialects were present to represent the intellect of Indigenous Australians. Language is a strong aspect of Indigenous culture as it connects and influences many Indigenous tribes as it is their form of communication. The environment also connects aboriginal people spiritually to their land and provides them with a sense of identity (Jackson 1999). Although there were many different groups and clans in the past, the tribes fighting over the land was a rare occurrence (Treatyrepublic.net 1996). This showcases the connection and respect they exhibited for the land and maintaining structure was their main priority. Additionally common law was a way that Indigenous Australians could preserve the ecosystem and cultural integrity, through their spiritual and emotional connection with the land (Langton 1996, p.10). However due to the colonization, there was less formal acknowledgement for Indigenous

This Assessment will be my personal reflection and analysis of contemporary issues raised for post-colonial Indigenous Australians through two programs on the National Indigenous Television station (NITV), Living Black and NITV News. I will reflect on how these issues have impacted on the relationships between Indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians, and how Indigenous culture impacts 21st century Australia. Through this I will also consider my own feelings and opinions on how these issues are raised and considered.

In the year 2009, James Cameron wrote and directed one of the most remarkable films I have ever seen ‘Avatar’. This science-fiction saga has a story line that is engaging and captivating for its audience. Avatar took place on a moon called Pandora. Humans discovered very valuable natural resources on Pandora and did whatever it took to obtain what they needed from Pandora. The people of Pandora are Na’vi’s, a 10 foot tall, blue-skinned humanoid alien group that lived in the rainforest or Pandora. The Humans found a way to interact with the Na’vi’s by artificial yet organic avatars that were controlled with a human mind and conscience. Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine who was given the task to manipulate the Na’vi’s into leaving their home. Sully entered

Avatar and the oil sands are alike and dislike in numerous ways, such as in social sustainability. Though the tar sands may be very important for many Canadians, First Nations traditional way of life is threatened. Substance abuse, suicide, gambling, and family

Back in time the indian people were the first nation people to arrive on his land, some aboriginals entered into a treaty negotiation in the late nineteenth centry because they were told they will be given specific amonts of land which in their view was known as the promise land. The promise for the “Promise land” was not kept rather it was a profound and dispossession time for the aboriginal people because, the land they were promised were rendered to other immigrants. “ aboriginals needs to understand that everything the whites have done was for their own good” this statement is harsh but true what the white people did was better then what the aboriginals could have done. We all agree that the aboriginal people were here before the white

To better understand Aboriginals as a Dream Culture I want to give more insight into Aboriginal Australians general culture and their conceptions of “Dream Time.” In his discussion of religion, Mircea Eliade describes a concept of Cosmos vs Chaos (Eliade 1957). In this notion an unordered world is chaotic only until is it transposed during a sacred time: “By occupying it and, above all, by settling in it, man symbolically transforms it into a cosmos though a ritual repetition of the cosmogony” (Eliade 1957:31). In other words until a land is tamed or created it is considered unordered. This can be applied to Aboriginal’s understanding of the world prior to their current presence. Aboriginals believe that in a time before the Dreamings, the land and world was a featureless earth. It was not until the dreamtime, or time of creation: “where there is contact with appearances from both realms of inside the earth itself as from ill-defined upper region” that the earth began to have its composed landscapes (Cowan 1992:26). The Dream Time is not only a period but more of a dimension where ancestral beings moved across the earth and created not only land, but every aspect of the earth including animals, plants, and man. It is important to realize that the ancestors created the natural earth and that is why Aboriginals live a particular lifestyle. Most Aboriginals living in this cosmogony are hunter-gatherer tribes. This aspect of their life can be traced to stem from the idea of

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

The construction of Aboriginality in Australia has been achieved through a variety of processes, in various places and at various levels of society, giving rise to a complex interaction between the constructions. At the local level, the most striking line of tension may seem to lie between what Aboriginal people say about themselves and what others say about them. But crosscutting this is another field of tension between the ideas of Aboriginality (and non-Aboriginality) that people of all kinds construct and reproduce for themselves, and the constructions produced at the national level by the state in its various manifestations, the mass media, science, the arts and so on (Beckett, 1988).

Aboriginal and non-aboriginal people are un-intentionally separated by many means. One such example would be the way each use their land and how they manage it, and different land uses stem from different values and morals. The biggest difference is that aborigines think of their environment and its inhabitants no lower than themselves, they live with the environment, take care of it, preserving the balance of ecosystems. Non-aboriginal people, however, think less about everything else and are more centred on their own wellbeing, comfort, and wealth.

In this essay Indigenous people will describe Aboriginals of Australia and Torre Strait Islanders. During the early years when just Indigenous Australians lived on Australia land there health was quite healthy and they were quite happy. Then Europeans took over the land of Australia and forced them to assimilate. This all started in the early 1900’s. Till this day it has affected Indigenous people. It has affected their physical health, mental health, and identity. As a nurse we can change this and not be judgmental and understand their history to provide better care.

Soon after, even with the helpful attitude of the Native Americans, the white settlers saw native tribes as savages and wanted to force them out off their lands. Their religion and culture was very different from the settlers and thus was inferior in their eyes. Indians were considered less intelligent because they had no knowledge of building proper houses and didn’t know how to

The Na'vi people in Avatar are having immense conflict with people and the first nations in Canada are having problems as well. First of all, because of the infrastructure lots of the land of the first nations and Navi is being cleared out. In the Oil Sands thousands of acres of land has been cleared out in the boreal forest for the industry and in the movie the bulldozers have destroyed thousands of trees and animals. Furthermore, the Navi lose their habitat the home tree during the movie because of the people's attacks on Pandora. Also in both situations the first nation groups and the Na'vi are not interested in the resources. They are willing to allow the companies and forces to take the resources as long as their environment and themselves don’t get harmed. However, along with similarities there are some differences in both worlds. The government is willing to help out the first nations who live near the oil sands. There are over 17,000 first nations who live in the surrounding areas who work in the oil sands. On top of that, the government has gave 5.4 million dollars in support of the first nations. Instead of providing help in the film the Na'vi people get treated badly. Pandora gets attacked several times by humans to force out the Navi. We kill thousands of Navi for our own good. Furthermore, we attack their habitat and engage in battle with them. Another difference between the two

Christopher Columbus, Jacques Cartier and Henry Hudson, all famous European explorers and settlers who helped establish colonization in Canada. Without the Colonial Era one would think Canada would not exist but in fact Canada did exist and was inhabited by native nations. So at what cost does colonization have? Just the mere destruction of a prosperous indigenous population. The famous Canadian director James Cameron and his talented team, set out to bring their perspective on the sensitive social issue of colonialism using the movie Avatar as the focal point. Avatar presents a painfully accurate take on how and why colonialism occurs, in conjunction with the impacts on aboriginal societies. Colonization results in the exploitation and extermination of indigenous communities which are brought to light by the producer’s of the movie Avatar over several audience outreach methods, including a dvd cover, posters and a trailer.