Indigenous Drive Behind New Partnership In Media Industry

Announced today at RES 2024, the largest economic summit in Indian Country, a new indigenous partnership in the media industry.

Grey Willow Music and Production Studios has been appointed to represent VoiceQ localisation software in growing its presence in indigenous markets in the USA.

Kiwa Digital, owner of VoiceQ, is an indigenous owned media technology company operating globally from its home in Auckland, New Zealand.

Grey Willow Music and Production Studios is an indigenous owned production and post-production business located in Fort Yates ND. The facility is based on the reservation Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the upper mid-west that borders North and South Dakota; and is driven by the mantra ”By Natives, For Natives”.

The partnership will be celebrated at RES 2024 when Grey Willow principal Lawrence “Larz” F. Archambault presents his latest project, localization of the Marvel Avengers Movie in Lakota language. An exceptional feature of this project was the involvement of the original cast in learning some Lakota language: Mark Ruffalo was tutored to do all his lines and Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner all did a small scene with Grey Willow and a 67-strong team of local voice actors.

“Our connection was established through us hearing about Grey Willow’s work on the Avengers dub with Deluxe Entertainment in Los Angeles, a VoiceQ client. Deluxe, Disney and Marvel studio engineers were impressed by the initial quality of Grey

Willow’s work using VoiceQ for recording. This validated them as a strategic project partner.” says Steven Renata Managing Director of Kiwa Digital.

“We first witnessed VoiceQ at Deluxe Studios in LA while training with the legendary Sound Engineer Doc Kane and their team to deliver Tier 1 dubbing projects. Once I had seen the technology in action, I asked what it was and how easy was it to implement. The VoiceQ user experience speaks for itself and from that moment on it was clear we needed it in our studio workflow.” says Grey Willow principal Lawrence Archambault.

The announcement comes at a time that indigenous stories are finally breaking through in Hollywood. Centuries of historic erasure and exploitation are slowly being righted with a focus on honest indigenous stories and discussions. Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s Reservation Dogs, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and sci-fi thriller Prey are among the movies wooing mainstream audiences while shattering outdated stereotypes (1).

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