Decolonizing Disney Princesses

[Music]

stories have power

i believe in the power of stories that’s

why they’re the first gift we give

children they’re how we explain the

world to them and their place in it

i’m an indigenered an indigenous nerd

professionally

and i believe in the power of stories to

do something even bigger

to decolonize that’s right stories i

believe can decolonize

break down systematic racism oppression

and even colonization stories can build

walls

but i believe they can also tear them

down

so let’s talk stories the stories i want

to talk about today are stories of

tradition

handed down over multiple generations

stories of gravitas

i’m talking about disney today that’s

right disney

near and dear to the hearts of so many

people including myself

disney is the largest storytelling

machine ever to have existed

that’s right disney is so powerful that

even if you don’t

disney we both know you still know the

words

to let it go

so when was the first time you saw

someone that looked like you

on screen for me i was a little girl

and her name was tiger lily

so what was her story in peter pan well

my friends

she was a damsel in distress

worse she wasn’t even the main damsel in

distress

she was the side quest damsel in

distress

for her part she is kidnapped by an

adult

male pirate in his continuation of a

feud with a child the feud of course

begins

when the child disarticulated the

pirate’s hand and fed the hand to

a crocodile with a clock speech

impediment

none of which is about tiger lily to be

clear

none of the movie of peter pan is really

about tiger lily

so it should come as no surprise to find

out that tiger lily doesn’t speak

once not one time in the whole movie

she is present but my friends she does

not matter

second princess on the docket pocahontas

one of the most internationally most

beloved indigenous characters

ever to have existed she is also

responsible for giving me unrealistic

expectations about my hair

that’s fine what is the story we’re told

well a beautiful indigenous woman

feels stifled by her culture and is

looking for adventure

so she dates mel gibson aka john smith

they meet and fall in love essentially

at first sight even though this is a

scene in which

and this is true he pulls a gun on her

which is what we refer to in the social

work biz as a red flag

there is then a war that she must stop

between the indigenous peoples defending

themselves against violent invaders

and said invaders she does this by

stopping her father from executing her

boyfriend mel gibson aka john smith

in the ensuing violence john smith

actually gets shot by a friend of his

and this is true christian bale

john smith is then put on a boat and

sent back to england leaving pocahontas

behind

credits roll

so here’s the thing her name

wasn’t really pocahontas and she didn’t

fall in love with john smith or mel

gibson

i do not have peer-reviewed sources on

her ability to paint with all the colors

of the wind

but i digress her names

given to her into the tradition of her

people

were metoca and aminote and she was

an ambassador a translator

a social worker a spy

and like so many indigenous women a

survivor of violence

you see she was kidnapped too not by a

pirate

but by the same soldiers settler

soldiers that she was trying to help

she was imprisoned for more than a year

she was then informed she had been

converted to christianity

stripped of her names and called rebecca

then she was sent to england to gain

financial backing for the colonial

effort

as a poster child for the good work of

colonization

as a living billboard to the civilized

savage

she was 21 years old when she died

some say it was poison others say it was

disease

but i can tell you this her body

was buried and lost in an english

graveyard 3737

36 miles from her home

and her story the fiction of it

continues

to frame the way the world looks at

indigenous peoples

and today more than two million people

claim to be the direct descendant

of the woman they still call pocahontas

two princesses tiger lily and pocahontas

one without a voice playing a bit part

in someone else’s narrative

the other had her story pulled to pieces

stitched together to serve someone

else’s purpose

they told her truth in their image

the great indigenous storyteller thomas

king says

the truth about stories is that’s all we

are

so you have to be careful with the

stories you tell

and you have to watch out for the

stories you are told

i believe in the power story

so what has disney learned about the

stories they tell

well in 2016 disney decided to tell the

story of a polynesian islander princess

named moana and they did a couple things

differently first

they hired taika waititi who besides

being one of the coolest

storytellers working today also happens

to be of polynesian islander

heritage second

they created the oceanic trust a

cultural advisory board filled with

polynesian

islander traditional knowledge keepers

storytellers and community members

and third they filled the film

with polynesian islander actors

including that of the main role

of moana so how was the story different

well moana is not about a girl looking

for a boyfriend i will tell you that

much

moana is about a young woman risking her

life

to save her community to bring healing

and balance to the land and the water

to honor her culture and her ancestors

that’s moana’s story

so disney i’m gonna give you some points

for moana i will give you some points

for moana

but i still have a bone to pick you see

in the movie moana actually gets called

a princess

and she says i’m not a princess and the

character of maui responds

if you wear a dress and you got an

animal sidekick you’re a princess

to that i have one more story to tell

a survivor of the residential school

system faces racism

and cultural oppression and grows into

an extraordinary woman

now a mother one day an indian agent

comes to her home

he has come to take her son to

residential school

a place she not only survived but she

knows

that it has higher death rates for

children

than soldiers like her husband faced in

world war ii

so she stands in her driveway her son

pushed behind her with one hand

and a kitchen knife in the other and she

says

the indian agent he left childless that

day

and he never came back and the woman

she wasn’t a princess she didn’t paint

with all the colors of the wind

she was my grandmother and because of

her

i am standing here

indigenous peoples did not have

princesses not in the time of pocahontas

and not today

we have grandmothers aunties sisters

mothers two spirit cousins who guided

lead and protected us

they were scientists engineers poets

doctors all around badasses

they were a power unto themselves we

are a power unto ourselves

but the world keeps telling tiger lily

and pocahontas stories

and we are reaping the harms of those

stories today

and let me be clear if you choose not to

listen to the stories

of the oppressed and the ignored the

stories of the hurt

and the hurting folks will have no

choice

but to take it to the streets until

there is real

meaningful change

so if you are someone who has

representation in the stories all around

you

this is my challenge to you my friends

go and listen at someone else’s fire

support with your resources the stories

of those who’ve been silenced

and ignored question question the

stories you’ve been told

ask who told them and why

and get ready because we have

extraordinary stories to tell

our stories in our ways

and to my cousins to everyone whose

stories have been stolen

ignored or silenced now is the time

now is the time for us to go name and

claim our stories

speak them from our own lips write them

with our own hands dance them with our

own feet

tell them in our own language

and disney when you’re ready for some