Now I know that we were the ones you needed protection from. We wanted our school, our program. So we stole you. Your clan tried to stop us so we killed them.Alma Cortez regarding TAP.
The Ambassador Program, also known as TAP, was a project created by Resources Development Administration (RDA) officials John Mercer and Alma Cortez. It appears in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
History[]
Created by two RDA members: John Mercer and Alma Cortez, the program was meant to raise young Na'vi in the human cultural sphere. They would become RDA envoys to the various clans and communities on Pandora which would further the RDA operations while letting the Na'vi benefit from human advancements. TAP would also allow the RDA to get easier access to Pandora's resources from the Na'vi without the financial expense of a prolonged conflict. Cortez believed the program could do good, though Mercer had ulterior motives and aimed to use it to win the admiration of the organization by any means necessary.
Alma Cortez after the massacre of the Sarentu clan
In 2138,[1] Mercer together with Cortez and Sec-Ops leader, Angela Harding, abducted children from a clan of nomadic Na'vi known as the Sarentu. Prior to this, they targeted another clan but one of its members helped them locate the Sarentu at their annual moot so that they would not take their clan's children instead.
The Sarentu clan was ultimately executed by Sec-Ops soldiers led by Mercer and Harding when negotiations went awry. This was largely due to the clan refusing to hand their children over. The details of this misdeed were then hidden from the RDA with fabricated reports and a corrosive acid was used to destroy the corpses of the clan members they killed which in turn created a poisonous gas that prevented anyone from investigating the scene of the massacre.[2] This left both the RDA and other Na'vi clans completely unaware of what had happened to the Sarentu, with many of latter believing the clan mysteriously vanished.
The students and their human handlers
The children taken from the Sarentu were placed in a human school run by John Mercer, who claimed that they were abandoned by their clan. At the TAP school, they were left under the nigh-complete control of Mercer and Harding. They were not allowed to leave the building and were under constant surveillance. They were further subject to various forms of abuse at the hands of Mercer and Harding. Meanwhile, Cortez did her best to protect the children, feeling remorseful over her part in what had happened to them.
During their time at TAP, the children had their belongings and toys taken away, and were frequently told the "trinkets" were dirty. They were often forced to take constant showers with disinfectant. The children were taught human language which was the only one they were allowed to speak. Other topics included human economics which they saw as dull, though Mercer believed was superior to more creative works which was what Cortez wished to teach them. At one point, Mercer would beat a student named Teylan for bedwetting, leaving bruises that lasted for weeks.
As time passed, the children were taught how to use human weapons and technology like firearms; this was considered forbidden knowledge by the Na'vi themselves due to breaking the Three Laws of Eywa. Harding would force a student to use a gun during training, breaking his fingers in the process.
In 2146, The children attempted to make an escape but were quickly discovered by Mercer who then killed the oldest student, Aha'ri, by shooting her when she attempted to leave the facility in an act of defiance.
As Na'vi and human relations on Pandora soured throughout the 2140s, the program started leaning towards military and covert skills to be used in a more confrontational landscape. This was intended so the Na'vi children at the program would be turned against their own kind.
The kill order is given to execute the students
In 2154,[1] with the onset of the Pandoran War, Hell's Gate came under attack. Considering the facility a loss, TAP was ordered to evacuate, and Mercer ordered the execution of the Na'vi students. By luck, the students were rescued by Cortez who put them in cryosleep.[3] The students woke up fifteen years later, by which time the RDA had returned to Pandora.[1]
Members[]
Mentioned[]
Trivia[]
- Avatar is known to be a not-so-subtle allegory for the treatment of Indigenous people in North America. TAP is similar to the history of the Canadian Indian residential school system, in which Indigenous children were taken from the influence of their own culture, by Catholic leaders, in order to be assimilated into the dominant Canadian culture.
- Mercer ordering the children to be executed is also similar to how Indigenous children died in the residential schools. How he tried to dispose and hide the Na'vi bodies is similar to when remains of over 1000 unidentified Indigenous children were found buried in 2021. The anger and backlash caused a series of church burnings and vandalism in Canada.
- The system's underlying purpose and methods greatly contrasts Grace Augustine's school. The Na'vi in TAP were abducted and separated from their Na'vi heritage, while Grace did not force anything onto her Na'vi students who consented and volunteered because they were eager to learn about humanity, and returned to their village after classes. The true nature of TAP was also kept hidden from the RDA who were unaware of the misdeeds committed at the program.
- Due to TAP being hidden from the RDA, it is implied that the program was a rogue operation from the rest of the organization. This would indicate that the RDA at the time would not approve of such an operation either out of ethical dilemma or that it would be impractical.
- The names of four other students are either mentioned or found in the school's records: Yefti, Telisi, Okni and Yuayt.
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