Leela of the Sevateem & the Reclaiming of Indigenous Representation
I invite you to come sit with me around the fire. I’ve talked a lot about this in the past, and it’s always been something so deeply important to me – I think that’s why I’ve taken so long to write this post, I want to give it the honour and love it deserves.
If y’all know me, you know I have this strong belief that Leela is Indigenous coded, and that is very loudly represented within Doctor Who itself, from the TV series to the Gallifrey audios – she is obviously meant to represent some form of Indigenous person – the wearing of skins, the ignorant savage stereotype that pervades her character is also a part of this.
While the 70s were not the most culturally sensitive, it’s clear that the writers were going for a sort “Tame the Savage” narrative for Leela – and as an Indigenous person myself, I want to reconcile and reclaim Leela as Indigenous. Why? Because my identity means a lot to me, it’s something that I honour and cherish wholeheartedly, and my special interest in Doctor Who is a part of that. Doctor Who has always been a part of my life, from my Indigenous Grandfather’s love of it bloomed my own deep love and care for the series. I wanna honour his memory for this as well, for he was the one who took little me in front of the TV and showed me the Face of Evil at the tender age of 5.
So I have a couple of points I’d like to state about Leela’s character that point to this framework in a way that I, an Indigenous person see within my own experiences of reconnection with my heritage.
In her first episode, Leela is kicked out of the Sevateem for denying the existence of Xoanon, her tribes’ deity. She is shown from the start to be curious, science minded, and needing the process of confirmation for herself. However, later on in the Gallifrey audios she goes and reclaims some of the Sevateem’s spirituality for herself – Spirit posits this in a very tone deaf way, but I still feel like it adds to her character in a way that is very Indigenous.
Now, I need to go on a sort of meander for a second about Indigenous spirituality and science. My reference for this is the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall-Kimmerer, an Indigenous Anishinabek Ecologist. This book had a profound impact on my work in decolonization and Indigenous ecology.
In this book, she weaves a textural observation of Indigenous storytelling traditions, as well as her own experiences within the scientific field. This is very important because it serves as a reference that science and spirituality are not opposites to each other, but can each have a profound impact on how we view the other.
Going back to the Gallifrey episode Spirit, Leela and Romana have a conversation that I feel is very tone-deaf when it comes to this view point. It pits Romana and Leela’s views as being in opposition to each other, when if we look at this from a different perspective, it can be handled a lot better. In a perfect world, Big Finish would hire a sensitivity reader for Leela, and actually research respectful ways of engaging with Indigenous modes of thought. But that is a lot to ask for 2000s British people, if I am being honest. Colonizer mindset is a poisonous one, and I think going forward we can do better for decolonizing media.
Now, coming back to Spirit, I fully believe that Leela can hold both science, and spirituality together, which if we frame her as being Indigenous that makes sense - speaking from my own understanding; it makes sense to me that Leela would hold both a scientific mind and a spiritual view too - at least in our teachings, medicine, spirit, and science are all connected.
This needs a sort of re-framing of the Jewelry Maker conversation, where Leela posits a grand creator figure who oversees all of creation. This reminds me of the story of the Sky Woman in Haudenosaunee storytelling. Now, in my own analysis of this passage, I believe that the woman that Leela is talking about here is not some grand creator deity, but rather, a cherished Ancestor.
Here is the start to the story of the Sky Woman:
“Long, long ago, the earth was deep beneath the water. There was a great darkness because no sun or moon or stars shone. The only creatures living in this dark world were water animals such as the beaver, muskrat, duck and loon.
Far above the water-covered earth was the Land of the Happy Spirits, where the Great Spirit dwelled. In the center of this upper realm was a giant apple tree with roots that sank deep into the ground.
One day the Great Spirit pulled the tree up from its roots creating a pit in the ground. The Great Spirit called to his daughter, who lived in the Upper World. He commanded her to look into the pit. The woman did as she was told and peered through the hole. In the distance, she saw the Lower World covered by water and clouds.
The Great Spirit spoke to his daughter, telling her to go into the world of darkness. He then tenderly picked her up and dropped her into the hole. The woman – who would be called Sky Woman by those watching her fall – began to slowly float downward.”
In the episode Spirit, you can see parallels, and its through these modes of traditional oral storytelling, as well as my own views on spirituality and gnosis, that we can assume that Leela comes from an Animist society.
LEELA: The spirit! The binding force that runs through life! Her design is all around us!
Now, we must ask, why would Leela veer so hard into the spiritual landscape of things when her very first appearance shows that she doesn’t believe in god. I can definitely see her holding onto some of the Sevateem's spiritual views after being away from home for so long and being so isolated on gallifrey, it makes total sense as a reaction to living away from home for so long – coming from someone who is also part of a diaspora away from your homeland, you tend to veer into holding onto stuff from home, so while Leela could absolutely hold the views that Xoanon is not god, nor real, but still have some of the spirituality of the Sevateem, if we view her as being Indigenous. You can be spiritual, and not believe in an all powerful god.
This is where I come back to Animism as a concept which makes sense to me, viewing Leela as having these views. Animism is defined as being:
→ The belief in the existence of individual spirits that inhabit natural objects and phenomena.
→ The belief in the existence of spiritual beings that are separable or separate from bodies.
→ The hypothesis holding that an immaterial force animates the universe.
Leela is obviously coded to be an animist by definition, a view held by a lot of Indigenous cultures. I will speak for myself as being both science minded, as well as holding traditional spiritual beliefs, that animism is not opposite to science in the slightest. Some of the most brilliant scientists right now are indigenous and hold traditional belief systems and it's beautiful and needs to be considered more in the context of Indigenous sovereignty.
This also opens up further conversation about Leela and Gallifrey, if we view Gallifrey as a metaphor for colonization and white supremacist societies, having Leela be that fish out of water, who comes from Somewhere Else, can also make a powerful narrative for refugees, and immigrants – having her be Indigenous, as well as diasporic frames her experiences within the context of Gallifrey to add a depth to the series I feel like it could use and didn’t fully expand upon to its full potential. (See again, my yearning for Big Finish to have a sensitivity reader, but also, colonizers.)
Coming all together to actually form my thoughts, I fully believe that Leela is actually Indigenous, and I will die on that hill. Yes, her original framing was fucking racist, colonial bullshit, but I have decided that Leela deserves better. Therefore, I am adding that depth that could’ve been added by bringing forth this conversation. As someone who is mixed Indigenous, part of a diaspora, I really relate to Leela’s experiences with living in a society that does not respect her, her views, or her sovereignty; thus I am trying to add some dignity back to her character for she deserves the world.
I think the pitting of Romana and Leela’s views in Spirit as opposite to each other was deeply tone deaf if we take all this stuff into consideration, but I do feel like there is a lot there that could be viewed deeper – such as Romana’s position as a white, liberal, upper class colonizer within her and Leela’s narrative. They could have explored it a lot more thoughtfully on either side, but it just comes across as racist the way it’s framed around Leela being a “Noble Savage” stereotype. Instead of actual knowledge and sensitivity they leaned into the racist stereotypes and we got Leela behaving out of character and weird. When there was actual basis and a strong foundation of Leela having an Indigenous background.
As my wonderful friend Boneworms @the-worms-in-your-bones put forth, you could do so many interesting things with Leela if she was intentionally written as Indigenous with care instead of being a noble savage stereotype.
That is all to say, I fully believe that Leela is Indigenous. Stereotypes, racism, and her complexities aside - I can see her holding the sacred medicines in her hands and holding the same reverence while braiding wiingaashk and still not believing in a creator god at the same time if we take her first episode into consideration - I interpret the conversation about the creator spirit in spirit as being a revered ancestor rather than a deity in the conventional sense, coming from a tradition that values Ancestor Veneration as something holy. And thus I have decided to reclaim her as one of us.
This is only a brief overview of my thoughts so far, and there’s a LOT I want to talk about because I have Thoughts about Leela all the time, especially within regards to her being Indigenous.
Anyways, have some Giizhik, enjoy your day, and go forth knowing that Leela deserves to be written with more intentional care
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