Academy apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather, who refused an Oscar on Marlon Brando's behalf

August 15, 2022 Muricas News 0 Comments

Academy apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather, who refused an Oscar on Marlon Brando's behalf [ad_1]

Nearly 50 years later, the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences is formally apologizing to Littlefeather for the mistreatment she skilled throughout her speech and within the years to comply with.

"The abuse you endured due to this assertion was unwarranted and unjustified," Academy President David Rubin wrote in a letter to Littlefeather. "The emotional burden you will have lived by and the associated fee to your personal profession in our trade are irreparable. For too lengthy the braveness you confirmed has been unacknowledged. For this, we provide each our deepest apologies and our honest admiration."

In an announcement, Littlefeather known as the upcoming occasion, throughout which she'll obtain the apology in particular person, "a dream come true."

"Concerning the Academy's apology to me, we Indians are very affected person individuals -- it is solely been 50 years!" she mentioned. "We have to maintain our humorousness about this always. It is our methodology of survival."

A number of Indigenous artists will carry out in the course of the occasion for Littlefeather, together with Hen Runningwater, co-chair of the Academy's Indigenous Alliance, and Virginia Carmelo, a descendent of the Tongva individuals who will lead a land acknowledgment.

"It's profoundly heartening to see how a lot has modified since I didn't settle for the Academy Award 50 years in the past," Littlefeather mentioned.

Her speech earned boos and applause

When Brando received finest actor for his starring position in "The Godfather," he was absent. In his stead, he requested Littlefeather, then an actress and activist, to attend the ceremony -- and to refuse the award on his behalf.

Taking the stage quietly and calmly in a buckskin costume, Littlefeather solemnly launched herself as an Apache lady and president of the Nationwide Native American Affirmative Picture Committee.
"(Brando) very regretfully can not settle for this very beneficiant award, and the explanations for this being are the therapy of American Indians at this time by the movie trade," she mentioned to a mixture of boos and applause, pausing and showing visibly upset. "I urge at the moment that I've not intruded upon this night, and that we are going to, sooner or later, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity."
Littlefeather said she promised Brando she wouldn't touch the award itself.
Brando additionally refused to simply accept the award as a result of federal response to Wounded Knee, when members of the American Indian Motion occupied the South Dakota city however have been met by resistance from federal legislation enforcement. Littlefeather mentioned she promised Brando that she would not contact the Oscar statuette, she mentioned.
"I centered in on the mouths and the jaws that have been dropping open within the viewers, and there have been fairly a number of," she informed the official Academy weblog, A.Body. "Nevertheless it was like trying right into a sea of Clorox, you realize, there have been only a few individuals of coloration within the viewers."
She additionally mentioned that John Wayne, the conservative Western star who as soon as mentioned "Indians have been selfishly making an attempt to maintain (the US) for themselves," charged at her to "take (her) off the stage," although he was restrained by safety guards.

After the ceremony, Littlefeather mentioned she was "silenced" and struggled to seek out work within the movie trade. She devoted a lot of her profession post-Oscars to activism and founding performing arts organizations for Indigenous actors.

Regardless of the condemnation she acquired from some in Hollywood who disagreed together with her defenses of Native Individuals, Littlefeather mentioned she acquired reward and help from leaders like Coretta Scott King and Cesar Chavez.

"I knew I had performed the best factor," she informed A.Body.


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