Dongria Kondh, the real life Na'vi, appeal to James 'Avatar' Cameron
This week Survival, international organization supporting tribal peoples worldwide, appealed to Avatar director James Cameron on behalf of the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa, India. Their story, the Survival website says, is "uncannily similar to that of the Na’vi in Avatar."
The appeal to James Cameron, published February 8 in Variety magazine, reads: "Avatar is fantasy...and real. The Dongria Kondh tribe in India are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on destroying their sacred mountain. Please help the Dongria. We’ve watched your film -- now watch ours."
The poignant ten-minute film "Mine: Story of a sacred mountain," shows the Dongria living in the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa and the enormous pressure they're under to vacate a land they believe is their very soul.
"British FTSE-100 company Vedanta Resources is determined to mine their sacred mountain’s rich seam of bauxite (aluminium ore)," the video notes say. "Vedanta is majority-owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal."
Survival's director Stephen Corry hopes Cameron had humanitarian beliefs behind the making of Avatar and wants to point out a real life situation in which it could apply.
"Just as the Na’vi describe the forest of Pandora as ‘their everything,’ for the Dongria Kondh, life and land have always been deeply connected," Corry says. "The fundamental story of Avatar -- if you take away the multi-coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids -- is being played out today in the hills of Niyamgiri in Orissa, India."
Survival, founded in 1969, is the largest organization, and one of the oldest, working for tribal peoples’ rights. In 2000, the Indian government abandoned their plan to relocate the isolated Jarawa tribe, after receiving 150-200 letters a day from Survival supporters around the world. Do your bit for the Dongria Kondh.
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