Campaign:   Missing Matoaka:  The True Story of Pocahontas

Client:  Muskrat Magazine

THE CHALLENGE:

Disrupt and transform the demeaning and harmful narrative around Indigenous women and girls.

According to Amnesty International, sexual stereotypes continue to be a major factor in violent attacks towards Indigenous Women and Girls. Indigenous Women are 16x more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other group, and 4 out of 5 Indigenous Women will experience violence in their lifetime.

In an effort to change this, The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls delivered 231 Calls for Justice, including the task to “take proactive steps to breakdown the stereotypes that hypersexualize and demean Indigenous women and girls, and to end practices that perpetuate myths that Indigenous women are more sexually available and ‘less worthy’ than non-Indigenous women because of their race or background”.

In partnership with Muskrat Magazine, a prominent Indigenous art and culture magazine, we wanted to answer this call and fight the stereotype, to help bring necessary truth to centuries of misrepresentation of Indigenous Women and Girls. 

THE ONE-LINE KEY INSIGHT:

The hypersexualized ‘Indian Princess’ portrayed in popular media continues to shape a false narrative about Indigenous women, perpetuating the stereotypes that lead to violence against them. The most famous of these portrayals is the story of Pocahontas, watched by generations of families with their young children. But what many have been led to believe is a fairy tale, is in fact the first documented account of a missing and murdered Indigenous girl, and a demeaning and harmful misrepresentation of the truth.

THE ONE-LINE IDEA:

To fight the stereotype and bring much needed attention to the truth, it was time to flip the script and tell the real story of Pocahontas, starting with her real name; Matoaka.

Introducing Missing Matoaka - a full length alternative and historically accurate audio track to the Disney version, synced with every syllable on screen.

THE PLAN:

In this feature length alternative audio track, Pocahontas - whose real name was Matoaka - narrates the existing Disney movie but from an Indigenous perspective. With the help of Indigenous historians, the entire movie was re-written and all new dialogue was re-recorded word for word in sync with the original by Indigenous writers and Indigenous voices, with music composed and performed by Indigenous artists. It is an accurate story about the abduction, assault and murder of Indigenous girls and women, and sets the record straight on harmful misconceptions and stereotypes surrounding the story of Pocahontas/Matoaka. Not only does the new script tell the true story, it also breaks down stereotypes of hyper-sexualization and confronts the values that maintain colonial violence. It reframes what has become a well-known narrative in a way that is profound, powerful and long overdue.

With PR as its engine, the initiative was launched on National Indigenous Peoples Day, and the alternative track was made available at www.MissingMatoaka.ca. Audiences were encouraged to “play this alternative audio over a common movie about Pocahontas to learn the real story”. Muskrat Magazine and the Indigenous creators involved in the project also made themselves available to provide more background and context to the media and promote engagement with the content on the day and ongoing.

WHAT HAPPENED/RESULTS:

The story was picked up by thousands of news outlets and the message carried far and wide through PR and primetime media, getting over 150 million impressions within the first week alone. Comments from the media and comments on the media articles clearly show that people were moved by the project and learned that Pocahontas’ story has been told so wrong for hundreds of years. We are still getting emails and interactions from the project to this day.  

The work was designed to get a quick response on National Indigenous People’s Day but also live on forever as a cultural, educational object producing long term impact in reshaping stereotypes of Indigenous Women. So, most importantly, The Chiefs of Ontario, The Indigenous Women’s Council, and educators across the continent have reached out for permission to share Missing Matoaka with their communities and students to use as a teaching tool and make part of their curriculum. We have also been informed Disney is working on applying a warning before Pocahontas. Finally.  

Our full-length audio track continues to live on MissingMatoaka.ca as a resource for the public. 

When you change the narrative, you change the future.