Native Representation and Living Land

Join us in conversation with Tonantzín Carmelo (Tongva/Kumeyaay and Latina) and Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne and Mescalero Apache) as they discuss their experiences as Native artists and cultural advocates in film; the importance of authentic Indigenous representation; how institutions can go beyond land acknowledgements; and more. This conversation will be moderated by Academy Museum Director, Community and Impact, Eduardo Sanchez.

About our guests

Tonantzín Carmelo (Tongva/Kumeyaay and Latina) is a SAG award-nominated actress known for lead and supporting roles in film, television, video games and theater. Early in her career, she played the lead in the supernatural thriller film Imprint as well as in the Steven Spielberg mini-series Into the West. Recently, she appeared as a series regular as Paara on NBC’s La… Brea and in recurring roles as Tish on CBS’s NCIS Origins and Eleanda Garza on Dark Winds (now showing on Netflix). Her voice work is featured as Kendra Daniels in the video game Dead Space, as a narrator for the audiobook White Horse, and as Buffalo in the Netflix animated series Spirit Rangers. On stage this year, she led the cast in the farcical comedy Fake it Until You Make it at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Bird Runningwater (Cheyenne/Mescalero Apache) was born and reared on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. He has dedicated his career to championing Native American and other Indigenous stories for film and television. He is an executive producer on Erica Tremblay’s 2023 Sundance Film Festival debut Fancy Dance, starring Lily Gladstone and acquired for distribution by Apple TV+; and on Phantoms of the Sierra Madre, a Norwegian documentary that premiered at CPH:DOX in 2024. Most recently he produced the Free Leonard Peltier documentary, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Runningwater headed the Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Filmmakers Program for 20 years, where he managed the institute’s equity and inclusion work. A member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, he began his career in media at the Ford Foundation in New York City. Runningwater is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with degrees in Journalism and Native American Studies; he received his Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.