Lily Gladstone’s Golden Globes win for ‘every little Native kid out there’

Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous person to win Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globes Sunday night for their role in Killers of the Flower Moon.

In their acceptance speech, they dedicated their win to “every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told by ourselves in our own words.” Gladstone uses she/they pronouns.

Gladstone’s win was huge for Indigenous people on screen and behind the scenes and they used the win as an opportunity to speak their language.

“It’s often how I introduce myself in a new group of people, especially when it’s significant,” they said after starting their acceptance speech in Blackfeet.

“I’m so thankful I can speak even a little bit of my language — which I’m not fluent in — up here because in this business Native actors used to speak their lines in English then the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera,” they said on stage. “This is a historic win, it doesn’t belong to just me.”

While Gladstone’s Golden Globes win made them the first Indigenous person to win best actress in a motion picture drama, many Indigenous people felt the win too.

Mohkinstsis (Calgary) Cree actress and director Michelle Thrush was teary-eyed watching Gladstone’s win.

“I was beyond thrilled for her and I knew in that moment that it would be history-making,” she said. “The win was bigger than all of us. I was so proud of her.”

Thrush sees Gladstone’s win as helping kick things into gear.

“I often talk about our veterans in the business; Tantoo (Cardinal), Graham Green and Gary Farmer — the first generation that came through those doors and then came my generation of the Podemskis and Adam Beach and we have tried for so long to get these doors opened,” she said.

“We’ve kicked down a few and now I feel like things are going to get a little easier for us to continue doing what we do and hands up, prayers down for Lily because she really kicked it.“

When Indigenous people are involved throughout the entire filmmaking process, shows and movies like Killers of the Flower Moon aren’t just more accurate and authentic but also different, Thrush explains.

“On shows now, like Bones of Crows, we have specific elders on set who help us get through these really emotional scenes, it was the same for Little Bird,” she said. “It’s this brand new way of filmmaking with elders on set and smudge on set and the ability to go talk and share what we’ve been carrying in these intense scenes is so great.”

Excited for what Gladstone’s win represents, Thrush is elated for Indigenous artists coming up in the biz.

“The road is going to be a little bit easier, to see the amount of advancements that are coming up and the amount of projects that are coming out is groundbreaking,” she said.

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Trevor Solway is one of those artists. The Blackfoot director and writer from Siksika Nation was emotional hearing Gladstone speak their language on stage and accept the award.

“For her to win that award shows the talent we have in our communities,” he said. “It made me really proud to be from Siksika and to be Blackfoot and it just gave me hope and energy to keep creating stuff because people are listening and watching now.”

Solway grew up in Siksika wanting to be a filmmaker but didn’t think it was possible because he didn’t see people who looked like him in movies, on television or on stage at awards shows.

“When Native people were in films, a lot of the time it was white people in brown skin; our stories, narratives and images haven’t always been portrayed by us or controlled by us and that has had a really damaging effect on our youth, their confidence and potential,” he said.

“So to have an authentic person like Lily Gladstone up on stage, in these blockbuster movies — and she’s incredibly talented — just goes to show that we’ve always had the talent.”

7:12 ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’: Canada’s Tantoo Cardinal on her role in the film

Solway hopes that film and television will move toward more robust representation when it comes to Indigenous inclusion.

“It should be behind the camera as well as in front of the camera,” he said.

“I think that the next step for us is to really take control of our narrative and to show our talent — more opportunities for Indigenous directors and writers and cinematographers and production designers and hair and makeup and grips and lighting, the whole deal.”

And Solway’s started a program to foster that. It’s called the Napi Collective, and it’s a grassroots filmmaking society where he mentors young filmmakers to tell their own stories.

“You know, we’re much more than our trauma and what’s happened to us, we’re living human beings,” he said. “We can direct things like sci-fi films or fantasy films or horror films or whatever we want.

“We’re not lacking in talent, we’re lacking in opportunity.”

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Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse started off 2024 receiving a headdress and blessings from the Piikani Nation — a member of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

“She makes us all so proud,” Woodhouse told Global News of Gladstone’s win. “Those aren’t our borders we look at our Native American brothers and sisters, like our brothers and sisters for her to win this and to say that this is for every little rez kid out there, it really resonated with (Indigenous people) on both sides of the border.”