On June 5, 2025, The Shine Network Institute released the first episode of ReMatriate the Lens, a bold, necessary intervention in an industry that continues to overlook and undervalue Indigenous women. Launched with the support of Paramount+ Canada and the Indigenous Screen Office, this new four episode roundtable series brings together Indigenous women in film and television to discuss their experiences, challenges, and triumphs candidly. It is a space for truth-telling, visibility, and reclamation, a space long overdue.
The premiere episode, Power, Presence & Indigenous Women in Media, features four powerhouse creatives: Tamara Podemski, Ellyn Jade, Kimberly Guerrero, and Darla Contois. Moderated by journalist Kelly Boutsalis, the conversation moves with depth, humor, and vulnerability as the participants reflect on their careers, the cultural weight they carry, and the realities of sustaining themselves in an industry that so often fails to reflect their communities, let alone invest in them.
The series was born out of necessity. As mainstream entertainment platforms increasingly spotlight actors in roundtable discussions, Indigenous women have remained largely absent from these conversations. ReMatriate the Lens was created in response to that erasure, an assertion of sovereignty through storytelling. Rather than wait to be acknowledged, these women are taking control of the narrative and defining it on their own terms.
What emerges is a testament to the work Indigenous women continue to do, on and off screen, to carve out space for future generations. They speak to the complexity of their roles, not just as performers but as cultural carriers, language keepers, producers, educators, advocates, and women. They acknowledge the misconception that visibility equals success when, in truth, most of their triumphs happen far from the public eye: mentoring youth, advocating on set, correcting harmful narratives, and building careers across multiple disciplines to sustain their creative lives.
Their conversation sheds light on the systemic challenges Indigenous women continue to navigate in the entertainment industry, from the constant pressure to represent entire communities, the unacknowledged labor of serving as de facto cultural consultants without proper credit or compensation, to the lack of roles that allow them to exist beyond their Indigeneity. Despite these barriers, what emerges is an immense power and purpose rooted in mutual support, community, and an unwavering commitment to the craft.
ReMatriate the Lens is a shift in who gets to speak, who gets to be seen, and who holds the camera. For Indigenous women in media, it is a celebration of everything they have built and everything still to come.
