D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai is using his platform to send a powerful message at the 2024 Emmy Awards.
When the Reservation Dogs star, 22, made his red carpet debut at television’s biggest night on Sunday, Sept. 15, the actor made a big statement. Woon-A-Tai was photographed wearing an all-black suit and a red handprint painted over his mouth.
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty
According to Native Hope website, the symbolic print represents a message of solidarity for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. The non-profit organization’s website explains that the painted hand “stands for all the missing sisters whose voices are not heard. It stands for the silence of the media and law enforcement in the midst of this crisis. It stands for the oppression and subjugation of Native women who are now rising up to say #NoMoreStolenSisters.”
At this year’s ceremony, Woon-A-Tai was nominated for his first Emmy Award for outstanding actor in a comedy series for his performance as Bear Smallhill in Reservation Dogs. The Bear star Jeremy Allen White won the award.
The FX comedy follows a group of Indigenous teens in Oklahoma who want to make their way to California — and decide they’ll do anything to get the money, even if they have to steal it. The series is available to stream on Hulu.
In an interview with Variety in April, the actor opened up about how the series had taught him the gravity of true representation.
“Reservation Dogs has taught me how important it is that we are the ones to tell our stories for us,” he told the outlet. “Nobody should tell our stories on our behalf. That’s been going on for too long. We’ve had too much misrepresentation because of it. Moving forward, I am very much going to stick with telling Native stories through the Native lens.”
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See PEOPLE’s full coverage of the 76th annual Primetime Emmy Awards as they’re broadcasting live on ABC from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
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