Blue Indians: Teaching the Political Geography of Imperialism With Fictional Film

Abstract

Fictional film provides an opportunity to breathe life into the application of academic concepts by capturing the attention and imagination of students. Using the 2009 hit movie Avatar, it is argued that popular fiction has the potential to help students grasp the dynamics of imperial/indigenous relationships in part because it removes the discussion from the level of historical and personal blame and into the realm of a science fiction adventure. While film may seem natural to today's media-exposed students and instructors interested in creative approaches to illustrate class material, limitations and concerns are also discussed.

Key Words:

• imperialism
• fiction
• film
• indigenous peoples
• political geography

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the anonymous reviewers whose constructive comments helped strengthen this article. Thanks as well to Sandra Garner for providing feedback on an early version of this article, Edison Cassadore for sharing an academic interest in film and indigenous studies related to this topic, Chris Lukinbeal for encouragement to pursue such a publication, and my students whose enthusiasm and feedback made it possible.

Notes

1. In this article, I use the term humans as shorthand to refer to people from the planet Earth.

2. In the case of Avatar, the perspective is still not indigenous, but one that is sympathetic to indigenous plight, a trend that started in the 1980s according to Kilpatrick (1999).

3. This seems to be inherently less effective given the separation of material from discussion. There are also the added problems of ensuring individual access to the film and widespread compliance with the viewing assignment. Aitken (1994) has similarly suggested optional out-of-class viewings, but cautions that this risks losing some of the film's context. Aitken also found that reference to currently popular films was often effective without showing them in class as even students who had not seen a given film generally would be familiar with its basic plot.

4. In my own use of Avatar I generally do not show the last portion of the movie which is increasingly dominated by a series of action sequences rather than providing insights into new concepts in political geography.

5. An early reviewer of this article pointed out that a parallel does exist, however, in the marginalization caused by Sully's disability, as well as among those humans who support him, i.e., the scientists who are increasingly disempowered as the movie progresses and the Hispanic helicopter pilot.