D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai’s bold Emmys statement highlights missing and murdered Indigenous women

D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards, held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on September 15, 2024

“Reservation Dogs” star D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai made a powerful statement on the red carpet at Sunday’s Emmy Awards ceremony, pairing a black tuxedo with what looked like a bloody red handprint smeared across his mouth.

The 22-year-old Canadian, who is of Oji-Cree First Nations descent, was the first Indigenous North American to be nominated in the ceremony’s leading actor category, according to Variety.

A red hand over the mouth has become the symbol of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement, which raises awareness of the Indigenous women missing and murdered across North America whose voices are not heard, according to the organization Native Hope.

“I did this for those who ain’t here, not 4 me, not 4 y’all,” wrote the actor on his Instagram, sharing a photo from the red carpet.

The murder rate for women on reservations in the United States is 10 times higher than the national average, and murder is the third leading cause of death for Native women, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute.

In Canada, the number of Indigenous women and girls who have been killed or vanished is in the thousands. The Canadian government has reported that they are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered than non-Indigenous women in the country.

In 2016, the government launched a national inquiry into missing and murdered women and girls. The inquiry found that the situation amounts to a “race-based genocide” of Indigenous peoples that especially targets women. Amnesty International has also said the number of those murdered or missing to amounts to a “genocidal crisis.”

“I don’t know what an Emmy Award will really do for stopping issues that we face on a daily basis,” said Woon-A-Tai, speaking to the Canadian Press news agency days before the ceremony on a call from Curve Lake First Nation reservation in Ontario.

“It just gives us hope. It gives hope to a kid on a reservation that they could also be on that stage and do it too, and they can,” he added.

Woon-A-Tai was nominated for his role as Bear Smallhill in the FX series “Reservation Dogs,” a comedy-drama that follows the lives of four Native American teenagers living on a reservation in Oklahoma. The show was the first American series written and directed entirely by Indigenous people and had a mostly Indigenous cast and crew.

Actresses Kali Reis and Lily Gladstone also made history at this year’s Emmys, becoming the first Indigenous women to be nominated in the acting category, according to Variety.

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