‘Amazing, beautiful and exciting to watch’
Lily Gladstone is having a historic awards season run. We asked Indigenous artists about the bumpy road to representation
In January, Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous person to win the award for best actress in a drama at the Golden Globes for her role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
“This is a historic win,” a beaming Gladstone told the audience, after opening her speech in the Blackfeet language. “This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream and is seeing themselves represented in our stories told by ourselves, in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from within, from each other.”
Two months later, Gladstone seems poised to make history at the Academy Awards as the first Native American to take home an Oscar for acting.
For Indigenous actors and directors across Canada, Gladstone’s meteoric rise is cause for celebration and represents long overdue recognition of the contributions of Indigenous artists to the silver screen. But it also offers a chance to reflect on the current state of Indigenous representation in film and television, which — though headed in the right direction — has a long way to go.
Ahead of the 96th Academy Awards, we asked four Indigenous actors and writers to reflect on what Gladstone’s historic run means to them.
Pride and joy
“Oh my god, it’s so amazing, beautiful and exciting to watch,” gushed actor Paulina Alexis, of the Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation — whose hilarious portrayal of Willie Jack made her a fan favourite on the FX show “Reservation Dogs” — over a Zoom call at the first mention of Gladstone.
“Growing up, we didn’t have movies that showed people like us and we didn’t have positive role models like Lily going up on the stage at the Oscars,” Alexis said. “It’s so amazing to see as a young actress, knowing that we can do it as well.”
Sarah Podemski, an Anishinaabe and Ashkenazi film and TV actor from Toronto, said she has an immense amount of pride “seeing Lily take up space,” and to hear Gladstone share her gratitude in her native language.
“It wasn’t too long ago that it was illegal for us to speak those languages. So any time someone is standing proudly and speaking their language, it’s such a powerful statement on our presence.”
The long (and bumpy) road to Indigenous representation
The history of Indigenous misrepresentation onscreen — which ranges from racist portrayals of Indigenous characters to their complete erasure — is long. From the use of “Redface” in old Western films to Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Tonto in “The Lone Ranger” in 2013, Indigenous characters have often been played by non-Indigenous actors or portrayed as simplistic, violent antagonists.
And though recent years have seen an uptick in Indigenous representation, a 2023 Hollywood Diversity Report showed that it ranked among the lowest, with Native theatrical film roles stagnant at 0.6 per cent. It also found there was virtually no Native representation among creative roles like writer or director.
As a young Heiltsuk/Mohawk woman, Zoe Hopkins wanted to be an actor, but struggled to find parts for someone who looked like her. In her first role, at 15, she played an unnamed Algonquin in the 1991 film “Black Robe,” which told the story of a Jesuit missionary in the 17th century.
“I turned down audition after audition (after that) because the material was so tiresome,” said Hopkins. That experience inspired her to become a director and a writer. “I wanted to try and create roles that are more representative of our full breadth of humanity and our modern times.”
Today, Hopkins is recognized as one of Canada’s finest Indigenous directors. Her ninth film, “Run Woman Run,” won best film at the American Indian Film Festival and was shortlisted for best direction at the 2022 Directors Guild of Canada Awards.
But it wasn’t until last year that Hopkins managed to penetrate the mainstream TV industry when she landed a job as a writer and director for the TV series “Little Bird.” The acclaimed drama, which tells the story of an Indigenous woman who was adopted into a Jewish family during the Sixties Scoop, received 19 Canadian Screen Awards nominations on Wednesday, including a directing nomination for Hopkins — more than any other series.
“It took much longer than it takes for people who don’t look like me, to be frank,” Hopkins said. “And I’ve been at it for 20 years.”
Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed “Killers of the Flower Moon” has been heralded as a high point in Indigenous representation in mainstream cinema. Featuring brilliant performances from Gladstone, Tantoo Cardinal and other Indigenous actors, the movie is based on the true story of a group of white men who killed dozens of members of the Osage Nation after oil was discovered on their land.
But the film has also faced criticism for its portrayal of the Osage and its depiction of genocide, which some people say is obfuscated by the film’s white gaze.
“‘Killers’ is certainly told in another voice,” Hopkins said. “And it’s a reminder that we’re still far away from seeing (Oscar) nominations for Indigenous people in direction or for best picture.”
Hopkins does worry that Gladstone’s Oscar nomination, and potential win, might give the academy a chance to pat itself on the back without making substantive change. “We see that happen again and again,” she said, citing the fact that, despite the enthusiasm surrounding the #OscarsSoWhite campaign and the push to recognize more women directors, the directing and writing categories remain stubbornly white and male.
At the same time, Hopkins is inspired by Gladstone’s dedication to using her platform to uplift other Indigenous artists, including Hopkins, whom Gladstone recently included in a short list of Indigenous talent to watch for the Guardian.
“I was so honoured,” said Hopkins. “We have a community-minded spirit in the work that we do … whether it’s really making a point to hire Indigenous crew or push the industry to put Indigenous people at the helm of big projects. It’s about creating capacity in the industry for one another and not just taking up space for ourselves as individuals.”
Hope for a brighter future
For Podemski, the mere existence of a show like “Reservation Dogs” — the first and only major TV series where every writer, director and series regular is Indigenous — represents a major step forward for Indigenous representation.
“I went from being a kid who was putting makeup on my face to look like a dirty and dark native to, 30 years later, being on ‘Reservation Dogs,’ which is like the most prolific Native television series ever,” Podemski said.
“It took that long for me as a performer to be able to see that jump, but we knew that it wasn’t going to happen overnight.”
Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat, a Makwa Sahgaiehcan actor who stars in the Canadian TV comedy “Shoresy,” says the industry is on the right track.
“I think it’s because there’s a lot of First Nations people on the other side of the camera,” he said. “They’re able to tell our stories now, (so it’s) not just up to us actors. A lot of directors can finally get up there and be like, ‘Hey, I have the funding; hey, I have the team, have the sup- port. I can finally tell the story right.’”
What’s more, shows like “Reservation Dogs” and the sitcom “Ruth- erford Falls,” an American comedy cocreated by Navajo actor and screenwriter Sierra Teller Ornelas, are vehicles for stories that centre Indigenous joy and humour.
“People are finally starting to see that we’re actually funny, that we have our own humour and that we’re, like, good people,” said Alexis.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she added. “Now that more Natives are showing that we can actually do it, more people are going to want to tell their own stories. This is just the start of something great.”