How Avatar: The Last Airbender serves as an homage to Asian and Indigenous cultures.

February 22, 2024

How Avatar: The Last Airbender serves as an homage to Asian and Indigenous cultures.

While many fantasy series transport audiences to fantastical realms filled with magic and mysticism, they often draw heavily from medieval European influences. Popular franchises like The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and The Witcher explicitly incorporate Western folklore and mythology, resulting in fantasy worlds that are fundamentally Euro-centric, despite their imaginative settings.

In contrast, there's Avatar: The Last Airbender, the widely cherished animated Nickelodeon series from 2005. Unlike its counterparts, Avatar portrays an epic power struggle among four nations harnessing the elements of water, fire, air, and earth in battle. Despite being an American production, the show's creators crafted a distinctly Asian-inspired world, drawing influences from monastic Tibet, Thai kingdoms, Japanese villages, and Arctic indigenous communities.

TV writer Albert Kim, upon watching the series with his daughter, recognized the rarity of an epic fantasy world drawing inspiration from Asian and indigenous cultures, a distinctiveness that persists even today. The surge in Avatar's popularity during the 2020 pandemic, leading to top rankings on Netflix, paved the way for Kim to become the showrunner for a live-action adaptation. Set to debut on Netflix on Feb. 22, the series faces high expectations from its dedicated fanbase.

In his role, Kim prioritized infusing Asian cultural specificity into the narrative to anchor the characters, enrich the world's lore, and address the demand for representation. Navigating through Avatar's intricate character arcs, complex sociopolitical themes, and ambitious visual scenes, Kim aimed to honor Asian cultures at every level, delving into deep cultural research and collaborating with experts, including Japanese folk musicians and indigenous parka designers. This meticulous approach extended to every aspect of the show, including costumes, props, and stunt coordination.

At the core of Avatar lies the telekinetic skill known as "bending," where warriors manipulate natural elements in combat. Each bending discipline draws inspiration from distinct forms of Chinese martial arts. Earthbenders, lifting rocks from the ground, mirror the grounded Nanquan style characterized by its heaviness. On the other hand, Firebenders employ Changquan, a sharp and explosive martial art. Stunt coordinator Jeff Aro played a crucial role in developing hybrid fighting styles, especially for characters like Aang (portrayed by Gordon Cormier), who traversed different nations and assimilated diverse techniques. Aro emphasized treating martial arts as a language in the series.

A significant portion of Avatar is situated in polar regions inspired by the habitats of Inuit and other indigenous communities. Costume designer Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh conducted extensive research on these cultures, delving into museum collections that showcased carvings on whale bones and antlers. Seeking guidance from indigenous elders and directly collaborating with indigenous artists, such as Taalrumiq, an Inuvialuit artist based in British Columbia, Khaki-Sadigh ensured cultural authenticity. Taalrumiq contributed geometric designs for parka trims, a feature traditionally indicative of a wearer's family or status level. The trim created by Taalrumiq showcased blue wavy patterns inspired by their upbringing on the Arctic Ocean.

When approached to create designs for the show, Taalrumiq was already a devoted fan of Avatar, having watched it with her children during the pandemic. The prospect of contributing to a series with significant global viewership excited her. Reflecting on the challenges faced by the Inuvialuit community, which has persevered through genocide, disease, and residential schools within a small population, Taalrumiq expressed the importance of her involvement in the production. She sees it as a source of inspiration, demonstrating that despite the challenges, individuals from her community can achieve success and recognition on a global scale.

The original Avatar animated series boasted visually stunning and intricately designed buildings, benefitting from the freedom of not having to physically construct them. However, for this adaptation, production designer Michael Wylie invested months in building sets inspired by architectural styles from India, China, and Thailand. A notable undertaking was a colossal 30-foot-tall set replicating centuries-old Tibetan temples, as depicted at the beginning of this article. Wylie and his team collected a vast amount of reference photos, utilizing "terabytes" of data to craft a temple design featuring an open fretwork ceiling, a series of uniform columns, and abundant gold leaf.

During his research, Wylie was impressed by the deliberate and unhurried approach of Tibetan builders, who transported trees up the mountain one at a time. Despite facing stricter time constraints, Wylie endeavored to incorporate individual craftsmanship where possible. He humorously noted that, even after all these years, artisans were still found on ladders and scaffolds, painting intricate patterns on the ceiling of a temple by hand.

Despite Los Angeles being home to some of the world's top session musicians, Avatar composer Takeshi Furukawa made a deliberate choice to record many sections of his score abroad. He emphasized the importance of engaging musicians who are intimately connected to the areas depicted, stating, "It was really important to me that we go to people who breathe the air and drink the water of that area." Furukawa organized recording sessions in Tokyo, Beijing, Mumbai, and Chennai, aligning the music with cities inspired by those locations.

During the Tokyo sessions, which corresponded to the protagonist Aang's journey to the fictional Kyoshi island, Furukawa enlisted around 20 musicians, including an eight-person choir and performers of traditional Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi, biwa, and koto. Embracing the distinctions between Eastern and Western music, Furukawa welcomed what might be perceived as imperfections by Western classical purists, such as varying pitch between notes, resulting in a unique blend and interaction between the orchestra and a Japanese flute. According to Furukawa, these nuances added a distinctive flavor and spice to the music.

In a particular episode, Aang and his friends journey to the city of Omashu, inspired by South Asian cultures and characterized by bustling bazaars, saris, and vividly colored fabrics. The director, Jabbar Raisani, drew upon his memories of attending a wedding in Pakistan, his father's homeland, to envision the episode's grand palatial feast. Raisani conveyed his vision to the prop master, Nevin Swain, emphasizing the need for exceptionally vibrant colors, especially for the desserts.

Swain collaborated with two Vancouver restaurants to cater the feast, with one of them creating a simulated version of dosa that could withstand the extended shooting day without falling apart. The outcome was a visually enticing array of orange, red, and yellow, presented on copper plates that reflected the vibrant spectacle back to the camera.

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How Avatar: The Last Airbender serves as an homage to Asian and Indigenous cultures.

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