D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai wants to see more Indigenous art on our screens.
The “Reservation Dogs” star recently sat down with ET Canada’s Carlos Bustamante as part of our “Indigenous Artists and Icons: Inspiring Change” special in honour of National Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada.
With a growing movement of Indigenous artists making a mark in Hollywood and beyond, the 22-year-old Canadian, who is of part Oji-Cree descent, shared what it’s like to be bringing the stories of Indigenous people to audiences in such a big way.
“It’s really a weird feeling,” he admitted. “I’m very proud that I got to be a part of something, in my opinion, that’s so historical. Being a part of history is crazy to me.”
“Forever our story has been told from other people’s perspectives.”
Reflecting on Indigenous people being able to tell their stories their way, Woon-A-Tai added, “It’s a new feeling. As much as I am new in this industry, I could speak upon other native writers and actors that this is a very new feeling for all of us, to be in the space that we are all in.”
“Forever our story has been told from other people’s perspectives,” he continued. “Our story was not told by us. So you have stuff that we see in the United States called boarding schools, in Canada called residential schools. We see these and every time that it was depicted in cinema, on television, it was never done by an Indigenous writer, director or actors. It was always other people telling us how we should see our history, And we never got the chance to ever tell our own side of our own history and our own perspective.”
Woon-A-Tai also talked about the impact it would have had on him as a child to see Indigenous stories told by Indigenous creators on TV.
“To grow up in it in a world now where you can turn on a TV and see yourself on that screen, you know, if I had that when I was a kid, maybe I would have been an actor a lot sooner,” he said. “You know what I mean? Maybe I would have actually wanted to pursue it ever since I was a little kid. I just never imagined it because I’d never seen it. It never popped in my mind to be an actor when I was a kid. It wasn’t realistic. It was like going to the moon. It was very unrealistic.”
Now that more Indigenous stories are getting told and receiving attention, Woon-A-Tai shared where he’d like to see it all go from here.
“A lot more storytelling,” he said, adding, “That was definitely going to happen. I mean, as you know, as the great Taika Waititi said, we are the original storytellers. And that’s very true. You know what I mean? Like not even just North American indigenous people. I mean, all over the Indigenous world as a whole.”
“Oral storytelling is in our DNA.”
The actor continued, “We are great storytellers, and almost all of us Indigenous around the world have oral storytelling. And what’s beautiful about the oral storytelling compared to writing it down is that you actually get to be in person. You get to be in person with them. You know, you get to see my eyes, see my emotions, my hand emotions, my facial features, you know? Oral storytelling is way more effective for me than just writing it down and reading it. And that type of oral storytelling is in our DNA.”
He added, “I think it’s as important for us to be behind the camera as much as we’re in front of it.”
Referring to the nepotism that’s so common in the entertainment industry, particularly behind the camera, Woon-A-Tai says he’d like to see Indigenous people in all those roles.
“I feel like if you are casting and if you are creating an Indigenous project, you should have an Indigenous casting director,” he said. “I feel like that is the ground basis to make change in the industry.”
The actor also shared how important it is to have proper representation for indigenous people in the industry.
“Say we’re casting the film right now when we don’t know nothing about Indigenous culture. What are we going to look to? We’re going to look to towards pop culture,” he explained. “And pop culture has always been misconceptions and stereotypes of Indigenous people. So if you’re learning off of misconceptions and stereotypes of Indigenous people, that’s what you’re going to look for.”
Woon-A-Tai also called out the misconception that all Indigenous people look similar and have a certain skin colour.
“We all come in different colours,” he said. “And why bring that up is because I have a lot of Native American actor friends who tell me, ‘I keep on getting denied roles because they tell me I look too dark or I look too light or I look whatever,’ you know what I’m trying to say? Like they’re very much trying to be like, ‘You look native and that’s what we’re going to push. We’re going to push this agenda of this is what a native person is supposed to look like.’ And they’ve been doing that. Where do you think that dark skinned, long hairs came from? It came from that agenda being pushed.”
ET Canada’s 30-minute special “Indigenous Artists and Icons: Inspiring Change”, featuring Wood, will air on Friday September 29th at 7:30 p.m. ET.