In a year when "The Revenant" is a leading Academy Award contender for best picture, its rare, authentic glimpse into Native American culture has been overshadowed by protests over the Oscars' lack of diversity.
The irony is not lost on filmmaker and comedian Sterlin Harjo, who joked this week on NPR that "our adopted brother, Leo DiCaprio, is about to get an Oscar for a film that had Native people in it, actually speaking Native languages, and now there's a call for boycott. Come on. Just give us this one."
Native Americans are rarely portrayed in film the way they were in "The Revenant" — if they're portrayed at all. Irene Bedard, the voice of "Pocahontas" and "Tree of Life" actress who is of Inupiat, Yupik, Inuit and Cree ancestry, told TheWrap that she's disappointed with the way the community is usually depicted in film.
"I'm just offended that as far as Native people go today, we have next to no representation in the media," said Bedard. "We're the invisible people, and when we get portrayals, they are in the past, and those portrayals are also the stories of us as victims or as savages. We can't be seen as true human beings."
And according to Bedard and Harjo, that's what makes "The Revenant" a watershed for Native Americans in film. Alejandro Iñárritu, the film's director, placed emphasis on accurately portraying not only the languages spoken by various tribes in the film, but also the clothing and customs of indigenous peoples.
Otherwise, it seems Hollywood is seldom interested in films about American Indians that don't comport with long-held stereotypes, according to Bedard, Harjo and James Lujan, chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts and Technology at the Institute of Native American Arts in Santa Fe.
"It seems that ['The Revenant'] is a very fair portrayal of First Nation people, but on the negative side it's just reinforcing those images of a native person stuck in the 19th century," he said. "You'd be surprised to hear how many people don't live in teepees or don't wear buckskin."
