"No More Smoke Signals" and What's Right and Wrong with "Avatar?"
A few days ago I attended the screening of No More Smoke Signals, a film by the Swiss filmmaker, Fanny Brauning, and the discussion that followed with Native American musician and activist, Tiokasin Ghosthorse. Shown at the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack, NY, the documentary of life on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota focused on the high energy of KILI Radio, the information hub connecting American Indian people across hundreds of miles. KILI radio, (Kili means “awesome” to the Lakota), broadcasts traditional and contemporary music and the personal, social, and political tragedies and celebrations of the people. The title derives from an almost toothless Indian gazing at the radio tower and commenting that we need radio because there’s “no more smoke signals”.
The film flashes back and forth, with clips of the lives of the people on the reservation and documentary footage of Native American activism, especially focusing on the shootout between the FBI and American Indian Movement (AIM) activists in 1975 at Pine Ridge which led to the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, who continues to be held over 30 years in Leavenworth. The anger and mistrust many on the reservation feel towards white America was clear in the documentary. Tiokasin Ghosthorse, in leading the discussion following the film, made clear that the many generations of prejudice and mistreatment American Indians have endured continues to this day. As an activist and host of Pacifica Radio’s First Voices Indigenous Radio, Tiokasin could site the long history and continuing process of the breaking of treaties whenever financial interests make those treaties inconvenient to corporate or government desires for gold, uranium, coal or dumping sites.
The low-budget documentary has won numerous awards in Europe, where apparently the plight of Native American people is more widely appreciated than here in the U.S. Here, the romantic idealization of mythic Indians combines with racist stereotypes of actual Indian people to keep the reality of poverty on reservations at a safe distance. Tiokasin spoke of this confused notion of the Indian in the white American psyche and how destructive it is as even Indian people internalize it.
The experience and discussion triggered some thoughts about another film with some related themes, the 300-million-dollar blockbuster Avatar. I came away from this incredibly awesome 3-D IMAX screening happy with not only the visual feast, but the fact that Hollywood has given us such a beautiful and powerful mythic portrayal of the contemporary struggle to save the natural world and honor indigenous, shamanic wisdom under threat of being destroyed by corporate/military/technological forces. My take is that Avatar offers an evolution of the Star Wars saga myth that infused an earlier generation with a way of understanding the hero's journey. Avatar brings in a greater sense of our contemporary struggle regarding the life of the planet and the movement towards more earth and nature focused spirituality.
But I did have a nagging feeling which was deepened by the “Smoke Signals” film and discussion. In Avatar, the alien race, Na’avi, are giant beings who appear as collages of various native people of our planet Earth. They are attuned to the natural world of the magical plants and animals and have the ability to merge with their consciousness. They are aware of the living intelligence of the planet on which they live. Fine. Unfortunately, even their most intuitive shaman seem incapable of seeing through the lies and duplicity of the human agent sent to spy on them for corporate and military groups seeking the minerals in their land. Fortunately, our hero falls in love with one of them, crosses over to their ways and leads them into battle to save them and their planet.
The beauty and relevance of the eco-sensitive myth of the story is unfortunately undermined by reinforcing the myth of “dominant-race superiority”. Like Tarzan, the privileged European who upon being dropped into Africa, quickly becomes the King of the Jungle, the hero in Avatar, after a short training period in the ways of the Na’avi, becomes better at their ways than any of them! Is it really true that people just won’t go to these movies unless that is the way the story unfolds?
I do think Avatar is a great film and worth seeing. But, I want to make a screenplay suggestion to the next great filmmaker who wants to demonstrate the beauty and wisdom of native cultures and wants to support them in their efforts to not be destroyed by “us”. Yes, have the hero/heroine fall in love with a member of the mythic “other”; have him or her learn their ways and the magic of their wisdom teachings. But NO, don’t have him become their Master of their own teachings. Let him get blessed and go back and teach his own people. Or, have her join with the tribe and be part of their efforts, in struggling against the aggression.
Maybe it’s too much to ask to have a film challenge all the destructive myths in modern Western Civilization, but this one idea (of the great white savior) has been hanging on too long. This is not about political correctness. It is a distorted prejudice about human intelligence that keeps us from each other. The indigenous peoples of the Earth are reaching out to us, calling on us to stop destroying not only them, but the life support systems on which we all depend. Let us learn humbly, with them, how to integrate our knowledge and theirs for a better world.
In peace,
Check out First Voices Indigenous Radio for more information about Tiokasin Ghosthorse and his work as musician, activist and teacher.
Changing Winds was directed by Christine Rose, who also spoke at the FOR film screening. Christine has devoted her time and energies to projects that bring supplies to and aid to the children of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Find out how you can help through the Changing Winds web site.
For a deeper look into the significance and meanings of Avatar, see the blog of Ralph Metzner, visionary explorer, writer, and teacher, who has learned respectfully from the shamans and brings it to his people, us.
