Actress, director and producer Jennifer Podemski has spent years in the television and film industry watching non-Indigenous people tell Indigenous stories.
“Everywhere I went I saw non-Indigenous people making content about us,” said Podemski, who is of mixed First Nations and Israeli heritage. Not reserved host Rosanna Deerchild.
Podemski was confronted with inappropriate questions about her indigeneity, such as “What kind of native are you?” or “You don’t look native enough” – at auditions. She says she also lost opportunities to play Indigenous characters to non-Indigenous actors.
Despite building a body of work as an actor over the years, landing roles on shows like Degrassi: the next generation and Doyle’s RepublicPodemski felt dissatisfied and angry.
“Even though I’m so grateful to all the non-Indigenous people who created the content I was in, who got me to where I am, it bothered me more and more,” she said. declared. “I couldn’t help but have this nagging feeling that something had to change.”
Dissatisfied with seeing so many shows “created by white people, telling stories about Native people and getting things wrong and continuing to perpetuate negative stereotypes”, Podemski vowed to become a producer.
Podemski works to create positive change in the entertainment industry for Indigenous creators like her. And while most of his work is on TV, other creators are forging similar paths in unconventional online spaces.
His most recent project is a TV show called Unstable, shot on Nipissing First Nation in Northern Ontario. This premiering on APTN in September. The project is Indigenous-led, with Indigenous actors, writers and producers. Of the show’s 55 cast members, 50 are Indigenous.
“It’s impossible for someone who doesn’t have a specific goal to express authentic, three-dimensional or multi-dimensional characters,” she said.
And when Indigenous people tell Indigenous stories, it can become a community effort. “If I tell a story, I’m not just going to tell it myself. I always have people helping me,” Podemski added.
The role of Indigne storyteller weighs heavily on Podemski. “We’re rebuilding a broken, shattered, fractured narrative,” she said. “Every storyteller working there today is fixing, fixing and rebuilding a broken piece each.”
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Sherry Mckay, a speaker, comedian and Anishinaabe influencer from Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, also had her sights set on a career in mainstream media.
But after struggling in a creative communications program, she found she was able to flex her creative muscles on YouTube.
Now she’s making a name for herself with the nickname NishBish on TikTok video sharing app. She is also now associated with Google Canada as the Canadian ambassador for the company’s Pixel6 Pro phone.
His videos range from comedic lip-syncing to sharing images that depict the severe harms suffered by Indigenous peoples. But regardless of the tone, she often works to raise awareness of issues important to Indigenous peoples.
WATCH | Sherry Mckay joins Rosanna Deerchild of Unreserved (in her TikTok debut) to re-enact a scene from the movie, Pretty Woman
Mckay found that many Tiktok users around the world didn’t know much about indigenous peoples. “So I kind of started making it my mission to [show that] we all come in different shapes and shades and sizes, and there are different types of Indigenous people around the world and we don’t all look the same.”
Mckay receives racist comments and backlash when she posts videos about being Anishinaabe, but she chooses not to internalize the comments or react angrily.
She also receives a lot of positive feedback – private messages from viewers who were inspired or felt connected to the content she creates and thank her for helping them embrace their identity.
“I didn’t have that growing up,” she said. “I didn’t have anyone saying it was OK [to be Indigenous].”
Although she finds success – like other Indigenous creators, such as Larissa Munch of Nazko First Nation in British Columbia and Theland Kicknosway of Walpole Island First Nation in Ontario – Mckay sees a place for Indigenous people in the television and cinema. In fact, she still wants to work in the industry.
We’re going to have to demand those spaces and occupy those spaces…and not wait…for non-Indigenous people to give us their consent. »-Sherry McKay
She is currently developing a sitcom about a blue-collar Indigenous family who live in a predominantly white neighborhood. “We’re writing it right now, but I’m going to say it sounds a lot like Roseanne,” she said.
Like Podemski, Mckay knows that getting Indigenous-made television shows off the ground — and improving Indigenous representation in film and television — is an uphill battle. But she’s ready to make the jump from the phone screen to the small screen.
“We’re going to have to demand these spaces, occupy these spaces and create them ourselves,” Mckay said, “and not wait…for non-Indigenous people to give us consent.”
Written by Laura Beaulne-Stuebing. Produced by Kim Kaschor.
