Month: August 2021

Avatar Costuming: Neytiri

This is my other favorite look from the film. Hands down, one of the best! Besides the fact that this outfit is purple, which is my favorite color, I really have no idea why I love this outfit so much lol. I just simply love how unique it is. It’s completely different from any other look that Neytiri wore in the film, and completely different from anything anyone else wore throughout the film also. And I am so in love with how the necklace piece looks like the roots of a tree! (and this is the scene where Neytiri takes Jake to the Tree of Voices, which is so fitting).

One of the things I would have loved to know from the film is where the Na’vi get their beads from. From what I know about indigenous cultures around the world, wooden and stone beads can be made in their own communities. Even beads from dried seeds. However, beads like the ones pictured above (which are usually made from some type of plastic, metal, or glass) generally come from non-indigenous communities through trade and/or selling.

Since trade is not something that has happened on pandora and humans were trying to colonize for unobtanium only, I am very curious to know how the Na’vi got their beads or how they made them/where they come from. I don’t remember seeing anything about beads in the book I have on Pandora so I’m super curious.

New life goal: recreate this look! 💜

Why I Like The Na’vi

One of the many reasons that I like the Na’vi so much is because of their connection to nature. I honestly can’t remember a time that I didn’t love nature. Unless it was mosquitos lol.

I was the kid that collected rocks and my mom would get frustrated every time she washed my clothes because a hoard of rocks would fall out of my pockets and into the washing machine.

I used to pick yellow dandelions even though I was allergic to them.

I would also collect the big, white, fluffy ones and make wishes over them before blowing them into the air. And yes, I called them “wishies” and not dandelions lol. I believed that as long as the dandelion seeds caught the wind instead of falling straight to the ground, then your wishes or prayers would come true.

I had a pet caterpillar and cried when I had to release it after it turned into a butterfly.

I climbed trees like it was my religion and dreamed of the day that I would have a treehouse and live in it ( I am an adult and still want one lol).

After watching the movie Ferngully as a child, I swore I could talk to trees and hear them.

I could go on and on. People like to talk crap about Avatar, but if you got nothing else out of the movie, I hope you can take away the message of appreciating the natural world around you. There is so much beauty in it and as long as you take care of it, it will always give.

The Amazon Tribe That Inspired Avatar

Although not the only tribe affected with what’s happening in Brazil right now, this is the specific tribe that Avatar was based off of. I’ve only ever seen James Cameron’s documentary on this tribe, but watching this 15-minute video absolutely made my blood boil and by the time it was over, my eyes were stinging with tears.

I am absolutely disgusted and appalled at what Brazilian leadership is doing and the specific things the man said in this video made me want to gag. I am at a complete loss for words.

I have no idea where to ind the full 60-minute episode, but this 15 minutes is more than enough to get the point across.

Trigger warning for pretty much everything pertaining to the destruction of nature and human life.

When learning about stuff like this, it’s easy to want to scream, yell, and curse Brazilian leadership. It’s easy to want to ask how we can donate and write to our own leadership to possibly step in and do something, but what will it do? What will it do when you have environmentalist leaders who aren’t even environmentalist, who’ve never been to the Amazon before, and who is on record saying that “Indians are indolent”?

What will it do when the new environmentalist leadership is filled with nothing but retired police and military officers? What will it do when you have a Brazilian president who is also on record saying that Indians are less than human? (Direct quotes from this article here: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/brazils-bolsonaro-creates-amazon-counsil-and-environmental-police-force/ )

2021 update on the Amazon: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/amazon-forest-loss-hits-second-highest-level-since-2008/

My heart just feels so heavy. And to know that something similar is going on in my own country with oil pipeline 3 being built to run through the land and treaty territory of the Anishinaabe people. I don’t know what to do or what will help. We are calling on our own president and state officials, and we hear absolutely nothing in return.

So, I post this to get the word out to anyone who might care. Write to your leaders. Repost and spread the voices of the indigenous people strong enough to speak out, brave enough to risk arrest during protests, and those who are sharing their own experiences. Even if you are feeling hopeless like I am feeling right now, do what you can and never back down. Indigenous people deserve to live and they deserve to keep their lands and their homes.

For anyone that is not familiar with Line 3, here is the website and a video breaking down what’s happening in simpler terms:

Website: https://www.stopline3.org/#intro