Fall Keynote Webinar

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Fall Keynote Webinar

Presented by Western Museums Association and British Columbia Museums Association
Sponsored by DLR Group

The Western Museums Association (WMA) in partnership with the British Columbia Museums Association (BCMA) were excited to host a special free Keynote Webinar featuring Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee Creek), the co-creator (along with Taika Waititi) and showrunner of FX's original series Reservation Dogs. We had a wonderful discussion with Sterlin on how Indigenous representation is changing in film and television, the messages behind Reservation Dogs, as well as his thoughts on how museums can amplify Native voices.

Watch the recording below or click here to watch on Facebook.

 

Meet our Speaker!

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Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee Creek) is an award winning filmmaker from Holdenville, Oklahoma. Harjo is the co-creator (along with Maori filmmaker Taika Waititi) and showrunner of Reservation Dogs, an original comedy for FX that focuses on four young teens in rural Oklahoma trying to get out of town after the death of their friend. Outside of television, Harjo has directed five feature films: three narrative dramas and two documentaries. His most recent film, Love and Fury, a look at contemporary Native identity and art, premiered at The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
 
Harjo is also a founding member of The 1491s, a popular sketch comedy troupe. At the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the 1491s premiered Between Two Knees, an intergenerational comedic love story and musical set against the backdrop of true events in Native history. Between Two Knees was co-commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and New Native Theatre.
 
Harjo currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he spends his time making content and raising his amazing children.
 

Critical Praise for Reservation Dogs

image courtesy of The Atlantic, from FX's Reservation Dogs on Hulu

In all, "Reservation Dogs" is a lovely, eminently watchable triumph. It’s an overdue tribute to a sort of community it doesn’t mythologize. Instead, the show treats the reservation and its residents on their own terms, as worthy of being explored for just what it is, and just who they are. – Daniel D'Addario, for Variety

Waititi and Harjo’s writing is key, but what holds everything together right now is this young cast...You can already feel that this show is just the beginning of their bright and varied careers. – Danette Chavez, for AV Club

Reservation Dogs isn’t interested in gesturing at the subject of identity, but in being true to life. – Shirley Li, for The Atlantic

The triumph of "Reservation Dogs" is that it subverts the long history of exclusively depressing storytelling about Natives, often written by creators and writers plagued by white guilt. It also, by no means, is intended to assure white and non-Native folks' comfort or gloss over continued oppressions and racist stereotypes with apolitical comedy. What "Reservation Dogs" does is recognize that...comedy is an inextricable feature of Native communities. – Kylie Cheung, for Salon

 

Special thanks to DLR Group for supporting this special keynote webinar and transformative change in museums

 
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