fancasting the water tribe from avatar: the last airbender
I am just going to say it. I will not be paying money to see M Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender this weekend, or any weekend. I might end up seeing with engagement passes, I might not. But I will certainly not pay. I will no longer support a system of institutional racism with my hard-earned money.
Yeah, I’m saying it. “The Last Airbender” is racist. I have been attacked in another forum, when discussing Avatar, for having the gall to say that racism is a legitimate reason to not like a film. But I’d say a given film being racist is in the top three non-fannish reasons to not support said film. The other two reasons being 1) a given film is sexist and 2) the director of a given film is a convicted child rapist still somehow walking free.
There are numerous wonderful and articulate posts floating around on the internet that lay out the case for not paying to see this film better than I can. And given the growing number of incredibly negative reviews from many different parties, it’s not really necessary at this point for me to contribute to the white noise.
What I’d like to do is share a little fancast. A lot of the talk about the race issues in this movie has focused on the source material’s Asian inspirations, with mention of the First Nations/Inuit influence, but usually only a mention. Racebending has tried to keep this issue part of the focus, but in the wider discussion it tends to get lost. It seems like a lot of people are convinced that there aren’t any Native/First Nation/Inuit actors to choose from.
That is ridiculous.
Here are my choices for Katara and Sokka, two of the main heroes of the series Avatar: The Last Airbender (one of the best TV shows of all time), and their family. They belong to the Southern Water Tribe, one of two tribes in the ATLA world based on an awesome mashup of indigenous cultures, mostly various Inuit/Yupik and Pacific Northwest aboriginal cultures. This is mostly indicated by their skin tents, their igloos, their parkas, Katara’s “authentic Inuit hairstyle” (direct quote from the commentary on the series pilot), their canoes, and yes, their colouring. Some other indigenous cultures are referenced as well, in their catamarans and Sokka’s boomerang. The evidence is overwhelmingly in support of Native American/Inuit Water Tribes.
All of my fantasy actors are First Nations people.
So, under the cut, here’s the fancast!
