The creators of a new international online series want to challenge the way young indigenous women see themselves and the world around them.
The character of Kisik featured in the new show Fierce Girls aims to encourage young indigenous women to be proud of their heritage and social values. Photo: Supplied/Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule
The 30-episode video series Fierce Girls, by creator Loretta Todd, tells the story of how Anika and Kisik, who are of Māori and Canadian Cree Indian descent, heal the world using super powers gifted to them by their ancestors.
Some of those powers include manaakitanga and aroha, values New Zealand producer Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule hoped would show young indigenous girls it is okay to be themselves.
"I have a 10-year-old daughter and 11 nieces who all need content like this. It shows them that you can draw power from your tikanga, from your tūpuna, but it's real too. We deal with homelessness and racism, but our girls use indigenous ways of being to find solutions to the challenges they face," Ms Biasiny-Tule said.
"It's just about understanding that indigenous values are superpowers."
Māori have been at the forefront of the project and involved in the writing, social media and animation work of the series.
The story will be told via social media and digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube and will use animation in some parts.
Ms Biasiny-Tule said the show would deal with difficult issues young indigenous people face.
"These are issues that even our 10, 11, 12, 13 year olds are dealing with so it tackles them in ways that would make sense for a teenager to come face-to-face with," she said.
"Some of the themes deal with how they've been victims of racism and what that means and how they deal with that.
"This was a wonderful opportunity to connect what's happening in Turtle Island in Canada and what's happening here and sharing some of that."
Fierce Girls creator Loretta Todd said the series was a window into the lives of young indigenous women.
"Fierce Girls allows for many stories, many experiences and diverse expressions of being indigenous, young and female. [It] was designed specifically as an intersection between social change, art and digital media."
Ms Biasiny-Tule said the journey in creating the series had been incredibly rewarding.
"I look at all these amazing wahine that have been a part of the production and to walk this journey with them has been really amazing," Ms Biasiny-Tule said.
"I was kind of at the back, just ensuring that the project was going forward, but the reality is [that] it was very much the whānau that was creating it."
The series will be launched on 21 June at the Toronto Film Festival.