Media Portrayal of the Waodani- Jarret Dahms

The Waodani people in the media have always been looked at as murderers, and for good cause at times as they did kill many people but the media didn't make them out completely as wild savage men that only killed, in "The End of The Spear" a Waodani man is given a ride in the missionaries airplane and as he is he sees his people and starts waving and yelling to them in an exhilarated sort of way, he seems incredibly happy as he has never flown before. The Waodani were having many issues with oil companies coming into their lands, polluting and destroying it, the Waodani decided to take action (maybe not in the best of ways but it was the only way they felt they could defend themselves and their land against the foreigners). They would kill the oil company workers, so much so that the government was going to have to intervene. This is all described in the movie  "The End of The Spear" as the Waodani were displayed as a warlike people that would constantly invade neighboring villages of Waodani, killing mercilessly to capture the other villages women and children. In the movie "Beyond The Gates of Splendor" the missionaries that were killed were looked at as martyrs, they went to  try and make  contact with the people so they could try to convert them and try to stop  them from killing. The missionaries wanted to try and make the Waodani realize that if they kept killing oil riggers that they would be wiped out by the government of Ecuador.

Hanon, Jim. The End of The Spear[DVD]. New York, NY. 20th Century FOX, 2006.
Hanon, Jim. Beyond The Gates of Splendor[DVD]. New York, NY. Bearing Fruit Entertainment; 2007.



Reflection:
This in my opinion is wholly wrong of the populous. This seems to be the act of a group of people trying to preserve their heritage and culture. Yes they did kill people (which may be a little overkill, no pun intended) to protect their people when it wasn't needed but it still was within their rights. These missionaries were on their land, and even though they meant them no harm and just wanted to get them to stop killing, the Waodani had no way to know this and thought them as some of the men that wanted to kill and take their land. The missionaries may have meant to only help these people but they couldn't know this, it is a sad and unfortuante thing that happened but it is partly there own fault for being there in the first place.

Hanon, Jim. The End of The Spear[DVD]. New York, NY. 20th Century FOX, 2006.

Hanon, Jim. Beyond The Gates of Splendor[DVD]. New York, NY. Bearing Fruit Entertainment; 2007.