We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren DeLeary. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.
Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I was the screenwriter for the Missing Matoaka Project which tells the real story of Pocahontas. As an indigenous woman myself, it was an honor to work alongside other Indigenous creators to present an alternative audio track to Disney’s Pocahontas.
The project is a call for justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by supporting accurate Indigenous representation in the media and showing the harmful effects of stereotypes.
The inaccurate depiction of Matoaka continues to shape a false narrative about Indigenous women being more sexually available and “less worthy” than their non-Indigenous counterparts. This has manifested itself into some chilling real-world statistics, including the fact that Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other demographic group, and the fact that four out of five Indigenous women will experience violence in their lifetime.
The Missing Matoaka project calls for proactive steps to break down the stereotypes that hyper-sexualize and demean Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, and to end practices that perpetuate myths that Indigenous women are more sexually available and less worthy than non-Indigenous women because of their race or background.
Simply visit MissingMatoaka.ca, press play on the track, and play Disney’s Pocahontas (on mute).
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a multi-faceted creator. I spent many of my early years as a touring artist, even winning a Juno in 2019. Since then, I have expanded my creative horizon, producing inspiring digital content based on spirituality, relationships, self-improvement, health, and pop-culture. I am also a passionate writer and photographer, as well as a radio personality and podcast host.
My podcast, Deconstruct, was born out of a season where my husband and I both were questioning the religious and cultural structures we were born into. It then blossomed into a space to hold a variety of conversations including topics like relationships, spirituality and culture. Supporting our listeners’ expanding curiosity.
My radio shows are with YoCo Nashville 96.7. I am joined by two other girls, and together our show is called The B*tchelorettes. We dive head first into celebrity gossip and pop culture while playing great music.
I work freelance as a photographer as well as a writer. My most proud work of art is currently the Missing Matoaka Project. I am a proud member of the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation, and as the screenwriter for this project – it was an honor to work alongside other Indigenous creators to tell the true story of Pocahontas by presenting an alternative audio track to Disney’s Pocahontas.
My social media and website is where you find it all come together. My motivation is to inspire others to think for themselves, stand proudly for what they believe, to follow their curiosity, to chase what lights them up and to truly lean into the beauty of being alive. I always show up authentically, and that is not something that will ever change.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
In everything I do, I tend to have the same goals. Whether I am making digital content and I’m sharing my current curiosities or passions… or it’s my photography and I am doing an embodiment session with a client that celebrates the body they’re in… or it’s my writing, course correcting history and hopefully paving a new way for the future… or my podcast – questioning the status quo…. or my radio show – going in on pop culture, allowing myself to get messy and find the light in sometimes a dark world…. It’s all to inspire the wholeness of being human. In a world that wants to box you up and put a pretty bow on you with labels and identities… we are each so much more than that. I have fought hard to have autonomy of my thoughts and experiences. And I want others to know they can do the same. You are your very best guide in this life and learning to trust yourself will point you exactly where you need to go.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Well, to be frank – I used to be in the Christian Music Industry. This is the genre I won a Juno in, in 2019. We won Christian Album of the year. The band, well – disbanded shortly before that and it was all quite bittersweet winning such an astute award. The choice to disband wasn’t my own and sent my husband (who was our drummer)and I through many very difficult life challenges. We suddenly lost our sense of career identity, financial stability and emotional support as we were no longer touring and newly married, settling into Nashville. This season of loneliness, financial hardship, and emotional turmoil is what kickstarted the questioning of everything we really ever believed. Intense stuff, I know. Ha! We had to start all over, work scrubby jobs, build an entire new community – all while deconstructing our faith. (Hence the podcast). The challenging times really made us who we are today and we were each others’ rocks through everything. And as I’ve mentioned, I have since expanded my creative horizon and Adam now drums for other bands as well as make custom drums for Pearl. I cannot say I am necessarily thankful for the hard times, but it lead us to where we are today – and for that, I am thankful. 
Contact Info:
- Website: laurendeleary.com
- Instagram: laurendeleary
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurendelearyofficial
- Twitter: laurendeleary
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/laurenofficial
- Tik Tok: laurendeleary
Image Credits
My own: Lauren Frost Photography :)