D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai made a powerful political statement at the 2024 Emmy Awards. The actor walked the red carpet with a red handprint over his mouth, a symbol of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement. According to a 2019 Department of Justice report, women are ten times more likely to be murdered on some reservations – a stark comparison to the national average.
The handprint “represents all the missing sisters whose voices are not being heard. It represents the silence of the media and law enforcement in the midst of this crisis,” according to Native Hope, an organization that aims to fight injustice in indigenous communities. The website adds: “It represents the oppression and subjugation of indigenous women who are now standing up and saying #NoMoreStolenSisters.”
Tonight, Woon-A-Tai, who identifies as Oji-Cree First Nations and Guyanese, is nominated for his role as Bear Smallhill in the Hulu FX comedy-drama series. Reservation dogs. “I think we’re moving toward a time where we don’t need anyone to tell our story for us,” he previously told ELLE. “If you’re going to do a story about Indigenous people, I think it should be absolutely essential to have an Indigenous director, an Indigenous writer and an Indigenous casting director.”
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