Far from Neverland: Anti-Indigenous Racism in Disney’s Peter Pan
As a child, I sat and watched Peter Pan and his Lost Boys prance through Neverland, merrily trekking through mermaid lagoons and lush forests. And I watched as they fought with all their might against tomahawk-wielding caricatures of Indigenous people and were almost burned at the stake before eventually making peace with them, sharing a pipe and joining in with a rowdy song-and-dance circle.
I rewatched Peter Pan when I was older, when I had learned that the land I inhabit had been stolen centuries ago through brutal conquest. And I was utterly horrified.
Peter Pan is, on its surface, a story about the three Darling children, Wendy, John, and Michael, who are taken on an adventure through the imaginary world of Neverland by a seemingly immortal boy named Peter Pan. He, along with his entourage of abandoned children known as the Lost Boys, is in a state of suspended development, perpetually frozen at around twelve years old. Neverland is populated by mermaids, pirates, fairies, and a group of Indigenous people referred to as “Indians”, “aborigines”, and a variety of other derogatory racial epithets throughout the narrative. Notably, they are never referred to as “people.”
The Peter Pan that I remember watching as a child was Disney’s 1953 adaptation of the original 1911 book by J.M. Barrie. As a white man living in Victorian England, Barrie was a direct beneficiary of systematic anti-Indigenous racism. Imperialism has been the lifeblood of England for centuries and glorifying colonization was highly normalized in British culture until very recently. Anne Hiebert Alton, an english professor at Central Michigan University, was quoted in Sarah Laskow’s Smithsonian article, “The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe”, as saying the following of Barrie: “He was very Victorian—and that’s the age when British people were still proud to brag that the sun never set on the British empire.”
In 1950s America, when Disney’s Peter Pan was created, racism was still widely normalized, especially against Indigenous people, who were being forced onto ever-shrinking and consistently underserved reservations. Children were still being removed from their families and pushed into “residential schools” designed to get them to renounce their culture, where they were subject to inhumane and sometimes fatal conditions. History had been whitewashed in books and classrooms for decades in an attempt to erase documentation of anti-Indigenous violence, and media containing negative messages about Indigenous groups would have been easy to promote and profit from at the time as they served to assuage the guilt of white beneficiaries of colonization. And despite being separated from the original by several decades of “progress”, according to Sarah Laskow, the 1953 movie “doubled-down on racial stereotypes” compared to previous adaptations of Barrie’s tale. Although Peter Pan is fondly remembered by many as a timeless childhood story, its legacy is marred by its multifaceted anti-Indigenous racism, betraying its complicity in societal patterns of oppression.
In Manisha Sharma’s “Disney and the Ethnic Other: A Semiotic Analysis of American Identity,” she notes how Disney has historically used traits like facial features, skin color, accents, and clothing to designate certain groups as foreign and therefore unlikable (100). This pattern holds true for Peter Pan, in which the Indigenous people are caricatures based on racist stereotypes. Their skin is a deep, unnatural shade of red, and they sing to the Lost Boys about its supposed origin in the appalling musical number “What Made the Red Man Red.” Apparently, they have all been blushing since the first “Indian prince” kissed a “maid” a “million years ago.” This seemingly innocuous lyric not only paints their skin color as unnatural, but trivializes the deep ancestral and temporal connections that these people have with their land by describing their history as “a million years” long, making it seem somewhat fictitious as well as rooted in silly made-up stories. All this serves to detach the Indigenous tribe from reality.
The vast majority of the film’s Indigenous characters are portrayed as conventionally ugly, while a few are conventionally attractive depending on whether their role is protagonistic or antagonistic relative to the white characters. For example, Princess Tiger Lily, one of Peter’s romantic interests, has a face compliant with European beauty standards and a more natural brown skin tone. In fact, she has basically the same facial structure as white female characters like Wendy and Tinker Bell. Her father, the Chief, is more representative of the average member of the tribe, with bright red skin, a massive, bulbous nose, tiny cruel eyes, and a wide, gaping mouth devoid of lips. He is barely identifiable as human. This depiction is in contrast with the white characters, who all have either American or British accents and much more normal, human facial features. Sharma reports that in her research into the impacts of viewing racist Disney films, students had an overwhelming tendency to identify with the hero and associate ethnic otherness with “savagery and exoticness”(99). This effect is especially evident in Peter Pan, wherein every choice made by the animators serves to distinguish the Indigenous inhabitants of Neverland from the white ones, rob them of human sympathy, and categorize them as their own separate species, definitively below the colonizers in the racial hierarchy. Before they even open their mouths, they are devalued.
As well as being overtly racist in its visual depiction of Indigenous people, Peter Pan perpetuates negative stereotypes about their language and traditions. Throughout the movie, the tribe speaks in either broken English or incomprehensible nonsense words, which serves to both diminish their intelligence in the eyes of the viewer and convey the notion that their language is primitive and useless. This attitude towards Indigenous language is responsible for the ongoing extinction of real Indigenous languages, many of which are dying out with their last native speakers as the pressure to assimilate stifles efforts to teach them to the next generation. In addition to misrepresenting Indigenous language, Peter Pan bastardizes and trivializes their traditions. During the “peacemaking circle” with the Darlings, Peter Pan, and the Lost Boys, they are shown flailing their limbs about, whooping at the top of their lungs, and smoking a pipe, encouraging the children to join in. While music, dancing, and ritualized smoking are real elements of many contemporary Indigenous cultures, these traditions are deeply sacred and involve specific elements such as blessings that are completely absent from the film. The music and dancing portrayed are far more rowdy, crude, and animalistic than their real-life counterparts, which are often far more intricate and can be somber and subdued as well as loud and exuberant. Peter Pan treats real Indigenous languages and practices with no accuracy, nuance, or reverence. However, many white people living on native lands are far more likely to encounter films like Peter Pan than they are to observe actual Indigenous rituals, so these inaccurate media have disproportionate power in shaping society’s view of Indigenous peoples. Their negative influence can have far-reaching effects on people’s perceptions of not only the languages and traditions of Indigenous peoples, but their cultures in a broader sense.
Peter Pan furthers the mischaracterization, generalization, and deindividuation of Indigenous cultures. One element of the film in glaring contrast with reality is its portrayal of overly patriarchal values within the Indigenous tribe. Throughout the movie, Princess Tiger Lily lacks agency or a voice of her own and is nothing more than a damsel in distress for Peter to rescue. The filmmakers elevate Peter Pan to hero status by allowing him to save a beautiful, innocent, and helpless girl, infantilizing and objectifying Tiger Lily in the process. This narrative is also emblematic of the white savior complex and the overall exoticization and fetishization of Indigenous women by white society—they are treated as precious curiosities who need to be “saved” from the “savage” circumstances of their birth through forced assimilation to a more European way of life, as in the kidnapping of Pocahontas (who died young of a European disease to which she had no immunity). Several other women in the tribe are depicted similarly to Tiger Lily; they are oversexualized, adhere to European beauty standards, and have no spoken lines. The rest are given a bit more agency, such as a woman who tells Wendy in broken English that she should not dance, and needs to go get firewood. Because she is positioned as an antagonist to the white child, this woman is portrayed as far more grotesque and less human, barely distinguishable from the men of the tribe like the Chief. When told to get firewood for a second time, Wendy crosses her arms and declares, in mocking broken English, that she will not be getting firewood and will be going home instead. This exchange conveys to the viewer that white societies give women and even young girls like Wendy more autonomy than Indigenous societies. This structure is further solidified by the depiction of a strict sex-based hierarchy in the tribe, with the Chief at the top.
However, the tribal values shown in the movie do not align with those of many real Indigenous groups, most of which trace their descent matrilineally and give a great deal of authority to women, especially those who are elders. One such example is the Gayogohó:nǫ tribe, who are the original inhabitants of the land I live on in what is now called Upstate New York. They give ultimate authority to Clan Mothers, who work with chiefs to represent the interests of the people and have the power to remove leaders from power who do not align with their nation’s interests. Women also have a crucial role in many tribal societies as peacemakers. The prioritization of peace in many Indigenous value systems is another reality Peter Pan completely fails to convey. In fact, it characterizes the Indigenous people as extremely violent and warlike by nature, seemingly attacking the Lost Boys unprovoked. This seemingly justifies the retaliatory violence of the Lost Boys by making it seem that they are at the mercy of cruel adults who want to burn them at the stake for no reason other than bloodlust. The film never implies that because the Lost Boys are on Indigenous land, they should treat the Indigenous inhabitants with basic human respect. Instead, the tribe are portrayed as a mere nuisance, impeding the white characters’ objectives. In the film, peace is only made when Peter saves and returns Tiger Lily to her tribe, reinforcing the association between white saviors and peace. Overall, the picture Peter Pan paints of Indigenous cultures is entirely inaccurate, oversimplified, and generalized. It only exists to further the storylines of the white characters either by providing obstacles for them to overcome or opportunities for them to be amused.
Some viewers of Peter Pan choose to overlook its overt racism and assert that the film still has value as a parable about the importance of growing up without fully abandoning one’s imaginative nature cultivated in childhood. These viewers are usually white and socioeconomically privileged, and have had the luxury of being able to play creatively and develop a healthy inner world early in life. It is telling that they worry about losing their inner child rather than losing their life or losing their job. This is not the reality for many children growing up on reservations, most of which are severely deprived of financial resources. In tandem with racism on the part of institutions and employers, which media like Peter Pan reinforces, this means that Indigenous people face high barriers to higher education, job opportunities, and financial security in general. Many Indigenous children are forced to grow up too quickly due to their dire economic circumstances and miss out on opportunities for imaginative play. Therefore, this parable about not growing up too fast actually hurts those for whom it is most important not to grow up too fast. This narrative also assumes that it is within their scope of influence to fix this problem when it is largely a systemic issue outside of Indigenous children and parents’ immediate control. Even if Indigenous children did have equal opportunities that allowed them to grow up with a healthy inner child, there are surely better stories to convey the importance of becoming responsible while preserving a sense of childlike wonder that aren’t riddled with racist narratives. One such story is Anne of Green Gables, although there are many more within the rich and expansive genre of coming-of-age media, including many newer tales which provide more diverse representation and insight into the experiences of authors from historically marginalized groups.
Other staunch supporters of Disney’s Peter Pan argue that Peter Pan and the lost boys provide representation for children who grew up in nontraditional family situations. On the surface, this argument seems to be advocating for a vulnerable group; however, this narrative is slightly misleading. How many children can actually relate to the experience of growing up completely unsupervised in the woods? If anything, this story is more about privileged white children discovering the world outside their cushy nursery and reveling in a temporary lack of parental supervision. The Lost Boys are literally described as children who fell out of their strollers while being pushed by nannies in Barrie’s original text. Even if Peter Pan did provide a sense of comfort and recognition for children raised in nontraditional environments, that would not erase the strong anti-Indigenous undercurrent that runs deeply through the film. There are other stories for these children that are far less problematic and don’t harm other marginalized groups. There is nothing uniquely valuable that Peter Pan provides; its harmful cultural impact far outweighs any marginal benefit it may provide to society.
Peter Pan alienates its Indigenous viewers by playing heavily into racist stereotypes and making a mockery of real cultural elements. Furthermore, it even harms those who do not watch the film by fomenting societal racism. Children’s films like Peter Pan run a high risk of being perceived uncritically by their young viewers and entrenching racist notions deeply into their malleable minds (Sharma 99). Due to the horrific repercussions of colonization, Indigenous people already account for a small portion of the U.S. population, and their media representation is disproportionately scarce because of persistent anti-Indigenous racism. Introducing false images of their appearances, languages, and values only serves to form public misconceptions about their cultures and deepen existing anti-Indigenous bias that may have originated due to a lack of familiarity. When society perceives Indigenous people poorly, their quality of life is negatively affected. Those seeking to profit from racist violence, such as oil companies ripping Indigenous lands away from their traditional caretakers in order to build pipelines through them, can justify said violence by painting these groups as inherently inferior. It would be inaccurate to claim that Peter Pan is directly responsible for all the violence against Indigenous people in society, but the film is emblematic of a larger pattern of mistreatment that often culminates in their torture and death. Promoting racial hatred of any kind is not a trivial or victimless issue. How do we strip harmful pieces of content like Peter Pan of their destructive power?
Peter Pan has already been removed from children’s profiles on Disney+, Disney’s streaming service, and content advisory warnings have been added. Disney should remove it from the adult version as well, because they cannot morally justify continuing to profit by putting hateful media in front of people’s eyes. However, there remains a definite need for discourse on art like this in the classroom so that students can learn to critically examine the media they consume. As Andreas Müller-Hartmann asserted in “Is Disney Safe for Kids?—Subtexts in Walt Disney’s Animated Films,” there is value in critically framing these texts by teaching students about their cultural context instead of sheltering them from it entirely. Müller-Hartmann suggests that texts like Peter Pan be paired with other critical texts to help students notice the harmful stereotypes and subtext lurking beneath their surfaces (408). Ultimately, racist media like Peter Pan should never be allowed to stand on their own, as there is not yet enough antiracist education in America to provide everyone the tools for critical reading. Peter Pan should be used only as a window into America’s horrifically racist past, in the hope that peering through that window will allow us to shape a brighter future.
Annotated Bibliography
Laskow, Sarah. “The Racist History of Peter Pan’s Indian Tribe.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Dec. 2014, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/racist-history-peter-pan-indian-tribe-180953500/.
This article provides an overview of the most popular renderings of Peter Pan, with a critical lens attuned to anti-Indigenous racism. It includes the 1953 Disney film with which I am most familiar, as well as the original book by J.M. Barrie, another of his adaptations of the story, and a number of plays and movies. The author calls attention to the racist nature of the depictions of Indigenous people in Barrie’s work as well as in most iterations of the tale, citing specific examples of harmful stereotypes. She also mentions where certain adapters of Peter Pan have gone awry in dealing with the Indigenous tribe in the story by either sweeping them under the rug or finding new ways to be racist.
This source was published in a reputable magazine associated with some of the country’s foremost museums and societies for historical preservation, so I can be reasonably certain that its content is factual and has been assessed for correctness prior to publication. It contains references to each specific work it discusses so sources can be easily found, further indicating its validity. I can use this source to add detailed information about the history of Peter Pan to my essay by citing examples of its racist elements, specifically in the original text and the 1953 Disney film. The quotes from critics included in the source could also help bolster my argument.
Müller-Hartmann, Andreas. “Is Disney Safe for Kids?—Subtexts in Walt Disney’s Animated Films.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 52, no. 3, 2007, pp. 399–415. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41158321. Accessed 5 Nov. 2022.
This source focuses on teaching children critical cultural awareness through the analysis of Disney films. It includes information about the marketing strategies used by Disney and how they have become so ubiquitous and entrenched as a corporation. The piece also provides a brief summary and analysis of two Disney films that contain problematic subtext, detailing how they promote various problematic stereotypes. The author then provides pedagogical strategies for helping students engage critically with these films in the classroom. It concludes with a reflection on the necessity of viewers, especially children, employing a critical lens when engaging with such media.
This article was published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal, affirming its credibility. Its author thoroughly cites all of its source material at the end, allowing the reader to easily confirm any of the claims made in the piece, further pointing to its validity as a source . The information in this source can be used to contextualize the importance of Disney’s influence on our collective psyche and give weight and relevance to my argument. Additionally, although the films analyzed do not include Peter Pan, the author’s conclusions about the power of subtext in animated children’s films can be universalized to most if not all problematic Disney films.
Sharma, Manisha. “CHAPTER SEVEN: Disney and the Ethnic Other: A Semiotic Analysis of American Identity.” Counterpoints, vol. 477, 2016, pp. 95–107. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45157189. Accessed 5 Nov. 2022.
This source examines a variety of Disney films, including Peter Pan, with an antiracist critical lens. The author also emphasizes the exclusion of various ethnic groups from the “American Identity”, and the resulting pressure on these groups to assimilate, in her discussion of the perception and impact of these films. She picks apart the specific elements of Disney’s stereotyped portrayals that contribute to the alienation of these ethnic groups, such as the use of various accents and skin colors. She also provides an explanation of the implications of conflating a certain ethnic identity with a fundamental “otherness,” weaving in some of her own students’ perspectives on the issue to add nuance and validity.
The author of this source extensively cites other papers that demonstrate various psychological tendencies of students, for example, the pattern of relating to white protagonists and claiming them as “American” while consistently perceiving nefarious antagonists as “foreign.” She carefully cites all her sources at the end of the piece. This lends credibility to the claims made in the text, as does the fact that it appears in a reputable, peer-reviewed publication available via the Smith College Library Databases. I can use the specific, detailed analyses of Disney media in this source to support my argument. I can also incorporate some of the author’s quotations from her students to add more viewpoints to my essay, because many of them have experienced racism and xenophobia in ways that I have not as a function of my privilege.
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