Molly of Denali Breaks New Ground with Emmy Win
X’unei Lance Twitchell told us about his experience writing the award-winning episode, the way it incorporates complex topics and the impact the show aims to have for indigenous storytelling and language diversity.The highly celebrated animated series “Molly of Denali” has earned its first Emmy Award. The show received the award for Outstanding Writing for a Preschool Animated Series at the third annual Children’s and Family Emmy Awards for the episode “Not a Mascot,” written by X’unei Lance Twitchell and edited by Raye Lankford. While being nominated multiple times this is the first win for the show which, since its premiere in 2019, the PBS Kids series has been praised for its celebration of Alaska Native culture and for being the first nationally distributed children’s program in the United States to feature an Alaska Native lead character.
We talked X’unei Lance Twitchell, the writer of the episode, about the recent award. For Twitchell, a professor of Alaska Native languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, the recognition carries deep meaning. “It is an incredible honor to have stood on that stage where Native American writers should have been standing before and where Native American writers will stand in the future,” he said. “My hope is that other Indigenous storytellers are inspired to put their works out there and for the film and television industry to see Indigenous storytelling more often.” Twitchell and the rest of the team behind Molly of Denali are working hard to create a world that fosters this inspiration and that protects indigenous languages. “In the universe that was created for Molly of Denali, many of the community members are multilingual,” he said. “Each episode features at least some words in Alaska Native languages, which helps to normalize the languages. We try to also show that the existence of multiple languages is always a benefit, and the children often translate the words for someone else, which shows that they know these languages. Many of our languages currently have few speakers who are children, so it creates a dream world for us to aspire to.” However, the work that the show is doing goes beyond the important task of language preservation. It also brings forward key issues of indigenous communities. The award-winning episode, “Not a Mascot” addresses the complex issue of Native American mascots in sports. In the story, the fictional Sitka War Chiefs change their name to the Sitka Sundogs. Twitchell approached the subject with care and clarity. “We tried to present the issue as completely solvable and really tried to show positive alternatives that included the community, and were rooted in local factors,” he explained. “It was important that the children brought it up because they expressed hardships that the adults might not have all been seeing and to demonstrate that children can be facilitators of healthy change.” Reflecting on his time with the show, Twitchell added, “Working with the Molly of Denali team has been incredible. The collaboration between writers, animation artists, voice actors, directors, and producers has always been respectful and with an intention to be grounded in Alaska Native cultures.” The Emmy win not only recognizes excellence in writing but also affirms the importance of Indigenous-led stories in shaping a more inclusive and truthful media landscape. |