What the musical philosophy of the Na’vi can teach us about sustainability

Alexander Poirier reflects on how the long-lost music of the Avatar film offers a lesson on environmental balance.

When James Cameron envisaged “Avatar”, he knew he wanted to create a fully realised culture which would convey the emotionality of the characters. That culture, the Na’vi, provides insight into the intricacies of human emotion but also offer viewers an example of a more harmonious relationship with the environment.

Cameron sought out this goal by working with experts from a variety of fields, such as CalArts ethnomusicologist Dr. Wanda Bryant. As an ethnomusicologist, Bryant studies the relationship between music and culture ("ethno-"), in areas such as religion, language, environment, and politics. She used her knowledge, along with composer James Horner, to create the music of the Na’vi by drawing from and combining different aspects of cultures around the world, using their scales, instruments, timbres, and philosophies.

Sadly, none of the work actually ended up in the final film (which is a story of its own), and instead we got a basic Hollywoodesque generic *native* soundtrack of bold strings, percussion, and nonsense syllables sung by sopranos, (which is also another story of its own about the racist history of film music in which Indigenous cultures are reduced to percussive motifs). Luckily, it was all recorded in Avatar’s field guide, the Pandorapedia, and in an article Bryant wrote for the Ethnomusicology Review. 

The relationship between the Pandoran environment and the Na'vi revolves around their connection to Eywa, their deity, and the maintenance of ecological balance. Within the Avatar world, Eywa is considered to be a planet wide neural network, similar to a beefed-up mycelium network in a forest, meaning that technically Eywa *is* their environment. The Na'vi's philosophy is that music is the prime cultural expression for this link, and because of it, their music demonstrates the healthy relationship they have with nature. 

This musical connection to the land is explored through their ritual music, all of which is in a triple metre (3 beats per temporal division). The three beats relate to  the trilogy of Eywa (the environment), Hometree (the home of the Na'vi), and the Na'vi themselves. Even more important is that Eywa is the 1st beat (the strongest), on which all songs start and end, demonstrating the importance of the environment. Meanwhile, Hometree is the 2nd and the Na'vi are the 3rd (the weakest), placed in behind the other two and highlighting the Na’vi’s reliance on the environment.   

One example of Na'vi ritual music is the "Spiral Song", shown specifically in the lyrics: “The songs bind the thirteen spirals; Of the solid world; To the eight spirit paths; Like the threads of a Songcord.” The Spiral Song shows similarity with Awelyes [women's ceremony] of the Anmatyerre and Alyawarr Indigenous nations in the Northern Territory. These multi-modal ceremonies of music, dance, and body painting, according to Professor Linda Barwick and Associate Professor Myfany Turpin, celebrate women as nurturers, and as such celebrate the land’s fertility. 

Indigenous people across the world also have a similar connection with nature and know that balance must be maintained for the benefit of future generations. According to ASU Professor Rebecca Tsosie (a woman of Yaqui [native Mexico and southwestern USA] descent), in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, sustainability is a "result of conscious and intentional strategies", such as the philosophy of the Haudenosaunee [Iroquois Confederacy] called the Seventh Generation. This philosophy states that all decisions must consider the impact on seven generations in the future, meaning that they don’t "savage the earth for their own means".

The relationship between Avatar’s Na’vi people and the environment (represented by Eywa) is one inspired by so many different Indigenous cultures on earth, but all with the common understanding of the relationship between humans and nature. Their knowledge that we are all one system, and we all impact it (positively or negatively) reminds audiences to seek out Indigenous ways of being as examples of sustainability. This doesn’t mean we mine Indigenous people of their knowledge, but rather, respect what they may wish to share as, according to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ‘the owners and custodians of the knowledge… they must be the ones who decide what is done with [their knowledge] and to whom it is given’. 

The forgotten music of the Na’vi people in Avatar reminds us about the need for intentional decision making that centres sustainability - not just that which prioritises profit. Just as their music one of the ways in which they connect to the environment, music (both modern works, and traditional pieces from around the world) has the potential to help lead and shape the changes necessary in order for us to influence these intentional decisions.