ECOFEMINISM STUDY : INDIGENOUS WOMAN FOR

PRESERVING NATURE IN POCAHONTAS THE MOVIE

Bagus Rama Dharma Manu

English Language Study Program, Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University

bagusramamanu15@gmail.com
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A. Introduction

Men and women are required to be in an equal line, but in society, women have a position
under the men. Women are always created as icons of warmth, love and always use their feelings
when doing something. It is not wrong if the Earth can be symbolized as a woman, this is not
without reason, as many of lovers and nature conservation carried out by women. In this society,
many examples can be used, like a former Indonesian Maritime Minister, Mrs.Susi Pudjiastuti,
who has a strong principle for protecting nature.

All over the world always provides more benefits for every living creature. However, lately
our minds are plagued by environmental issues. A number of natural resource conflicts occur in
this country, due to human actions that prioritize selfishness over the safety of nature and
humans themselves. The problems that occur in nature are usually studied in geography, but
nowadays environmental problems are studied by almost all fields of science, including literature.

Literary works can be present as a trigger to awaken awarenes of the importance of the
relationship between humans and nature. It is also that human life is described throught in
literary works in a form of fiction and many more. Literary works also presented the phenomena
that happened in humans reality life (Mutmainnah, 2022). In literary works, there are various
media that can be used to describe this ecofeminism movement, one of them is audio-visual media,
that is film or movie. One of the movies that contributed to this ecofeminism movement was
Pocahontas The Movie, a Disney’s classic film produced in 1995. Pocahontas The Movie tells the
story of an indigenous Indian girl who fights against the destruction of her village's nature by
white people who want to look for gold for their own wealth, she changes their point of view of
nature, where nature has a reciprocity element and love on it, certainly, that is the point of view
of feminism. In Pocahontas The Movie, the resistance to the movement for the destruction of
nature is packaged in an anti-violent way that is in accordance with the concept of ecofeminism in
literature study.

Endraswara (2016) states that ecological is a message of literary to understanding that

seeks to capture ecological messages. In the ecofeminism movement that promotes equality in
saving the environment, the movement seeks to create and preserve nature and the environment
based on femininity or feelings. Ecofeminism is a combination of ecology and feminism, where
problems in nature are studied by feminist analysis. Ecofeminsm is a part of Ecocriticism studies
that a study about all of relationship between cultures and natures. Christianity (2002) world
oppression nature and women by the patriarchal power structure should be examined together or
cannot be fully confirmed. Based on Glotfelty (1996), Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship
between literature and the physical environment, just as feminist criticism examines language
and literature from a gender perspective and marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of
production and economic class, ecocriticism takes an earth-centred approach to literary studies.
In ecofeminism, the integration of ecology and feminism is based on a reflection that the
discrimination experienced by both nature and women. In this article, Ecofeminism occurs in this
literary work “Pocahontas the Movie1995 ”, that focus on the struggle of the indigenous woman to
protect her natural village from destruction as men.
B. Methods

Descriptive qualitative method was used for the research on this article, because the data
are analyzed in form of the words, phrases and sentences. According to Kim et al ((2017),
descriptive qualitative method generates the data that describe the “who, what and where of
events or experiences happens” from a subjective perspective. The data from descriptive
qualitative research focuses on discovering the nature of the specific events under the study.
However, the data collection also include observations and examination of records, reports,
photographs and also documents. The presentation of the data from descriptive qualitative
research involves a straight forward descriptive summary of the informational contents of the
data that is organized in a logical manner. Based on Bradshaw et al (2017) a descriptive
qualitative design may be deemed most appropriate as it recognizes the subjective nature of the
problem, the different experiences participants have and will present the findings in a way that
directly reflects or closely resembles the terminology used in the initial research question.

The data source of this study was taken from Pocahontas The Movie, that released on 1995
under Disney production. However, the data sources was chosen because the storyline focus on
the woman character, there is Pocahontas it self. Who love and will doing anythings to save her
village that present form of the nature. Another reasons is because it was from Disney Production,
surely have a big impact in society, especially for all of kids around the world, all of their stories
have a place in every kids heart.

Based on Sugiyono (2007), analysis data is a process to set systematically the data of the
result in interview, observation. The methods are organized the data and choose which one
important thing and need to learn also to make a conclusion so it will be understood. Therefore,
the data analysis in this article were collected from observation techniques, such as watching,
listening, taking noted and making the transcriptions. Technique of observation is technique of
collecting data, the researcher does observation directly in the object of research to look closely
the performed activity. Riduwan(2004).

On observation techniques, there are some steps, such as watching, listening, taking noted
and making the transcriptions. First, the data source from this article ware download in
November 2022, from Online Stream Platform and continued by watching the data source. After
that, some scenes that related on the topic of study there is Ecofeminism was listened carefully,
then taking noted and Last, making the transcriptions of the scenes that relate to study, make a
transcribe from the English subtitle to the form of the text, writing down the words, sentences or
phrases into a word document and then choose the best data for the research.

Finally, the data analysis technique, explains the steps to analyze the findings and answer
the research problems. in qualitative research is done by arranging the data logically and
systematically. Furthermore, some steps are used in analyzing the data. First, the subtitles
transcripts were read. Second, the findings are analyzed and classified into the scenes or
transcripts that related to topic when a women must to find a way from the struggle that she had
to protected her nature village from destruction, so it can find the answers for the problem on this
article.

C. Results and Discussion

This research is conducted to analyze the presence of ecofeminism, which focuses on the
response of the female character “Pocahontas” in Disney’s classic movie “Pocahontas The Movie
1995” in dealing with her struggles. The research presents how the woman character
“Pocahontas” finds her way to protected her nature village from destruction also how the
destruction begin, based on ecofeminism point of view.

The Struggle began when a group of white people, lead by Governor Ratcliffe, who thirsty
for wealth and glamorous things and a young man named John Smith, an traveler and as an
assistant of Governor Ratcliffe. They came to buried treasure, which the Governor believed that
the gold was in some of areas in an a beautiful island, who knows that the island is a home of
indigenous people from Indian, tribe of Pocahontas. This caused a dispute between them, but on
the other hand, the characters Pocahontas and John Smith are fall in love with each other when
they was meet in the middle of the forest.

As on the title of this article, the resistance of indigenous women in preserving their
nature that is told in this Pocahontas The Movie, the female character “Pocahontas" who must
find the best way to stop wars of her own Indian indigenous people and groups of white people,
which it will made destruction of nature and Indian village. There were several forms of the
struggle of “Pocahontas” as a woman character to avoid this bad incident, some of the resistance
that she did to preserving nature of her nature village are:

1. Changed the mindset of the male character, that nature also has a soul

In one scene, when the woman and male character first meet. The woman character
“Pocahontas” tries to change the male character’s mindset “John Smith” that nature and all
contents on in, have a soul like human, which she implemented this statement into a song:

Pocahontas : “ Kau pikir, semua keindahan alam ini milikmu?. Bumi dan seisinya hanyalah
sebuah benda mati bagimu?. Tapi aku tahu, semua makhluk hidup di bumi, memiliki jiwa,
roh dan bahkan nama…”

English:
‘You think, all this nature beauty is yours?. Earth and everything in it is juts a dead object to
you?. But I know, all living things on earth, have souls, spirits and even names.’

In the song that Pocahontas sing to John Smith, that she described that everything in
this nature and this earth has a soul, which we can see in this sentence “semua makhluk hidup
di bumi, memiliki jiwa, roh dan bahkan nama…”, she emphasized that everything on this
earth has a soul and indirectly reminds us, all of this world also have feelings or a heart.

2. Suggest peace compared to war

In another scene, Pocahontas tried to persuade her father not to go to war and proposes
peace. In this context, besides because she already loved John Smith, she indirectly prevents
damage of the nature of her village.

Pocahontas : “ Kita tak perlu menyerang mereka. Pasti ada cara yang lebih baik. Mungkin kita
bisa bicara dengan mereka”

English:
‘ We don’t need to attack them. There must be a better way. Maybe we can talk to them’

In this case, Pocahontas shows her feminist side which prioritizes feelings by suggested to
peace rather than war and of course to save her own village.

3. Save the war with her courage and understanding

In the last scene, when the war will started, which marked by John Smith announced in
from of white people. Pocahontas came with run without a word then prevented and protected
John Smith who almost executed by her father, she comes where no one of women at the location.
Pocahontas : “ Jika ayah ingin membunuhnya, ayah juga harus membunuhku ”
Father : “ Nak, Mundur!”
Pocahontas : “ Tidak!, Aku mencintainya ayah…. Lihatlah disekelilingmu, kalian semua
memilih jalan yang membawa kalian pada kemurkaan. Aku akan memilih jalan yang
berbeda. Bagaimana denganmu ayah? “

Father : (while remind of his wife) “Putriku berbicara dengan kebijaksanaan melebihi
umurnya, kita semua datang dengan penuh amarah. Tapi ia datang dengan keberanian dan
kelembutannya. Aku ingatkan, tidak ada lagi saling membunuh”.

English:
‘ Pocahontas said : No, I love him father… Look around you, you all chose the path that led
you to wrath. I will choose a different path. How about you father?’
‘ Father said : My daughter speaks with wisdom beyond her years, we all come full of anger. But
she came with courage and understanding. I remind, no more killing each other ‘.

On the transcript, we can focus on bold sentence, it show Pocahontas uses her compassion
and understanding as her different way to deal with war situation. Where these traits are nature
of women but not a few of them are afraid to show concern and action in front of many people.

So, in Pocahontas story, we especially women are taught to have courage to commit your
own selves to show your care and affection for many things, in this Pocahontas The Movie, she
dares to choose another path, but still uses female nature “feminist side” in expressing her love,
whether it is to her nature or John Smith’s character.