REVIEW ESSAY: “It’s About Time!”

Cherokee actor Wes Studi was recognised with an Academy Honorary Award in 2019. To date, he is the first and only Native American actor to be decorated with the highest achievement available in the film industry. This review discusses the career that he paved for himself at a time when Indigenous erasure, stereotyping, and racist portrayals were still prominent, and how the progress of this career correlates with a shift towards positive changes for Indigenous representation and the current zeitgeist moment for Indigenous mainstream cinema.