James Cameron has revealed that the Avatar sequels will feature the Na'vi version of a haka.

While the cringe-factor of "space haka" could be quite high, a Kiwi academic doesn't believe James Cameron has crossed a line of cultural appropriation with its proposed use in the Avatar sequels.

The sometime-New Zealand resident film-maker revealed on Monday that the blockbusting sci-fi franchise's heroes, the Na'vi, would have their own haka-inspired dance. He said the Māori language had already influenced the first, 2009 movie, still the highest-grossing movie at the New Zealand box office.

The sequels' Kiwi star Cliff Curtis had discussed the idea with iwi before they pressed on, Cameron added.

GETTY Cliff Curtis and the Avatar team would do well to follow Taika Waititi's example on Thor: Ragnarok of providing creative opportunities for aspiring indigenous filmmakers and having an indigenous presence throughout the production, believes Hamuera Kahi.

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Lecturer in Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury's Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies Hamuera Kahi said in a statement that Māori and indigenous oral traditions and storytelling will often express our connections to our ancestry and places.

"This doesn't translate well to Hollywood film."

Moana featured a generic Pacific culture setting, says lecturer in Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury's Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies Hamuera Kahi.

"With films like Disney's Moana, in order for our communities to see Pacific characters on screen, we have to concede something where we get a generic Pacific culture setting and some stereotypical portrayals of secondary characters. Similarly, with the first Avatar film, while the themes of the film were progressive in showing the impacts of colonisation, it didn't develop any of the indigenous characters.

"I don't know that'll I'll be holding my breath in anticipation of seeing a space-haka, the cringe-factor possibility is quite high, but I do have confidence in Cliff. He's a kapa haka performer who has competed at regional competitions with Te Pikikotuku o Ngāti Rongomai, and he comes from a whānau of haka experts. He's talked about how he would incorporate his taonga tuku iho (cultural heritage) in to the role and [as Cameron has alluded to] I expect that he's probably had some discussion with his whānau."

Kahi added that Taika Waititi had set the benchmark for good practice with last year's Thor: Ragnarok.

"He provided creative opportunities for aspiring indigenous filmmakers and had an indigenous presence throughout the production."

Haka have featured in just a handful of US movie productions over the years. A collaboration between Dwayne Johnson and his on-screen daughter's football team was "blessed by elders" before it appeared as part of 2017's Fast and Furious 8 (aka The Fate of the Furious), Emma Roberts joined her lacrosse team for a pre-match haka in 2008's Wild Child and low-budget rugby movie Forever Strong attracted controversy with its depiction that same year.

Before its release, representatives of iwi Ngati Toa, the tribe whose late chief wrote iconic war dance Ka Mate in the 1820s, said they were not consulted about its use.

A frustrated iwi spokesman Taku Parai told Stuff that the film-makers (who claimed to have consulted with New Zealand "cultural advisers") needed to have asked "the right people".

"All we ask is for people to inquire with us, to come and sit down with us and to dialogue."

In Cameron's case, he appears to have been at pains to do that, with the help of his leading man Curtis.

"[Cliff] said 'I know exactly what to do' and I said 'is this OK should we check with the iwi on this?' and he said 'I think it's a great idea, lets just do it', so there you have it," Cameron told 1News.

Curtis will play the leader of a tribe of ocean going Na'vi in the forthcoming sequels.

According to the 1News, Avatar sequels 2 and 3, which are being shot back-to-back, will move to Wellington in 2019 for post production and special effects work.



Cameron will spend a year here, working on the two films, the first of which is scheduled for release in December 2020.