Oji-Cree man D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai made history when he became the first Indigenous actor nominated for the Emmy Award’s Outstanding Lead in a Comedy Series.
The star is best known for playing Bear Smallhill in ‘Reservation Dogs’, a comedy-drama series that follows the lives of four Native American teenagers trying to leave the reservation they grew up on.
Appearing on the event’s glamorous red carpet on Monday, the Canadian actor made his mark with a staunch message of First Nations justice.
Woon-A-Tai had a red hand print painted over his mouth to stand in solidarity with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement (MMIW), acknowledging the thousands of Indigenous women whose voices have not been heard or have been silenced.
The MMIW movement advocates for an end to violence against Indigenous women across the US and Canada, highlighting the high rates of abductions, homicides, violence and trafficking of Indigenous women and girls.
In 2016, the Canadian government launched a National Inquiry into MMIW which found that excessively high levels of violence and colonial violence are perpetrated against Indigenous women.
The inquiry parallels a two year Senate inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women in Australia, which concluded in June this year.
According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people disproportionately make up 20 per cent of homicide victims in Australia.
