"Reservation Dogs" Cast and Co-Creator Unpack the Series' Impact on Indigenous Representation

quotYou know you spend your career making independent films that get seen by festival audiences and you get good reviews from critics that see them which are like maybe fivequot said Harjo quotAnd then all of a sudden you have a show that I mean I thought people would like it but it sort of struck a chord that I didn39t know it would strike even with nonNatives It was like this boomerang that was sent out to the universe and it39s been coming back to us and I39m just very gratefulquotFactor the youngest of the main cast made his acting debut with Reservation Dogs and reflected on the series39 impact quotIt39s just been an amazing response to hear so many positive things about it and coming back at us and I wouldn39t trade it for anything elsequot he saidWoonatai expressed similar gratitude for the continued increase in representation for Indigenous actors since the show launched last summer quotIt opened up more doors and opportunities for me to express myself inquot he explained quotAnd besides that it made me realize that I have values now that I follow when I want to join an Indigenousled set Before it wasn39t really like that because we never were here So now that we are it39s changed how I39m going to step into filmmaking especially Indigenous contentquotAn awardwinning filmmaker herself Jacobs joined the writers room this season and is credited with writing the fourth episode of season two quotMabelquot When asked about her experience working with Harjo and the writers she replied quotGearing up for the writers39 room for season two I was ready to assemble all my writing credits and get everything together I was like 39I39m going to really fight to get in the writers39 room39 And then Sterlin was just like 39Hey you want to join39quotIt meant so much to be a part of a writers39 room where there39s all Indigenous folks with varying degrees of experience and people looking out for each other and making sure that we39re all learning on the wayquot she continued Jacobs also shared how proud she was to use her first name Kawennamp225here in her writing credit as opposed to her stage name Devery which is actually her middle name quotWhen I39m able to contribute my voice as a filmmaker and a writer in this case to be able to use my name Kawennamp225here the name that my family all calls me means leaving a piece of my heart and who I am in the work that I39m creatingquot she explainedWhen asked if leaving his small town to pursue a creative career was a difficult decision Harjo said it was similar to what the four main characters go through toward the end of season one when outdated spoiler alert they ultimately decide not to go to CaliforniaquotIt was really always hard for mequot he admitted quotTo this day there39s a part of me that knows that I could have stayed and lived a certain life and that would be okay Some of that39s reflected in this show you know like that struggle of do you stay or do you goquotIt was at this point that Harjo39s young son Ayo made a cameo appearance and joined his dad oncamera to the surprise and delight of TCA members who are rarely surprised by anything that happens during a Zoom sessionquotIt was a thing that I always struggled with but I came to terms with itquot he continued quotI think for me it was important to live near my home and always be involved as much as I can with the people therequotquotUnlike Elora I never wanted to leavequot Jacobs chimed in quotIt was something that I kind of had to do out of necessity for this work that I wanted to do For me it39s also really important to get back whenever I can and to stay connected because it39s so much of who I am Each of us on the show amp8230 have our own experiences of what home means and where we come from and our connections to communityquotSimilarly Woonatai who grew up in the Toronto area expressed that he thought he would never leave the city he grew up in nor that he could pursue an acting career He was completely unaware of Canada39s evergrowing production hubs in Toronto Vancouver and beyond quotI never knew that we had a humongous industry in Canada and I had never seen any representation on the screen that looked like mequot he said quotSo it never even crossed my mind to be an actorquotToward the end of the panel the group was asked about the many cultural Easter eggs and references to Indigenous lore that are sprinkled throughout both seasons of Reservation Dogs that nonNatives may not catch A fanfavorite from season one was the Deer Lady that Big played by Zahn McClarnon met when he was a childquotIt39s been a mythology and a story that has been important to a lot of our cultures and a lot of our tribesquot Harjo explained quotA lot of Indigenous people have that story I didn39t want this Deer Lady to be a onenote caricature a sort of mythological thing that comes in When you meet her I wanted you to know her history I wanted you to feel that she was a character and a wellrounded character and has conviction and there is a purpose to what she doesquotWoonatai and Alexis went on to mention other superstitions in Indigenous culture like whistling at night which is believed to lead spirits to follow you home quotA lot of us don39t whistle at nightquot Woonatai saidquotDon39t whistle at night manquot Alexis added shaking her head quotDon39t do that I think when I was a kid one of the aunties were like 39Quit playing at nighttime or somebody39s going to play with you39 But really I think that they were just trying to scare us so we wouldn39t playquotHarjo recounted a brief but hilarious moment in season one when the Rez Dogs visit someone39s home and there39s an owl ornament on their front porch but we see it onscreen with its eyes blurred out quotIn the case of the owl for a lot of Native people it can mean a bad omen or death a messenger of deathquot he explained quotSo out of respect for that we blurred the eyes because we didn39t want to have Native people seeing an owl every time they turned on the showquotquotSome jokes are meant to be kept as inside jokesquot Jacobs added with a laughSeason 2 of Reservation Dogs is streaming on Hulu with new episodes every WednesdayClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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"Reservation Dogs" Cast and Co-Creator Unpack the Series' Impact on Indigenous Representation

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Juan Ayala

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"Reservation Dogs" Cast and Co-Creator Unpack the Series' Impact on Indigenous Representation

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