Writer with Wrangell roots writes for show highlighting Native culture

By Jonathon Dawe

Wrangell Sentinel

As a child, Larisa Koenig experienced a vision of her grandfather being mortally injured during a totem raising that she credits with saving him from death. It is recognizing the supernatural realm through a Native lens that inspired her work as a writer and co-producer on an upcoming television show.

Larisa Koenig, who left Wrangell as a young child in the late 1970s and now lives in Washington state, is the writer for a video production that focuses on a fictional tribe and indigenous culture, with characters and experiences inspired by her own life.

“Even the Darkness” — currently an independent operation — has filmed five episodes, with enough material for a lot more episodes, and focuses on indigenous culture in a way that will appeal to fans of the “X Files,” “Lost” and “Stranger Things” shows.

The show is looking for a distributor.

Koenig was born in Wrangell in May 1971 and lived here until she was 6 years old. She then moved to Haines, where she stayed until she graduated high school.

“I spent a lot of time in Wrangell, though,” she explained. “I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. My grandfather is Richard Stokes and my grandmother is Wilma Churchill. My parents are Gary and Rebecca Stokes.”

She serves as an Indian Child Welfare Act expert witness as well as a consultant and advocate for indigenous matters. She lives in Stanwood, Washington, north of Seattle.

Koenig was initially contacted about her video project in 2020 after being referred to the show’s director/producer by a friend.

“They wanted me to review what they had, and to make sure that things were accurate and not culturally insensitive,” Koenig explained. “After a while, the original writer left, and things weren’t exactly clicking with the new writer they hired. So, that’s how I became the writer for the show.”

Set in the Pacific Northwest, the show focuses on a fictional tribe with characters and experiences that are inspired by Koenig’s own life — some of which was experienced in Wrangell. In fact, some stories she heard from relatives while growing up have been woven into the story.

Though five episodes have been created already, Koenig explained that the production doesn’t have a distributor yet.

“There is the possibility of going with a big streaming service, but it’s very important that we maintain all the creative rights to the show,” she said. “This has been a completely independent project, so far. And some studios have a way of being culturally insensitive or casting indigenous roles with non-indigenous people. We want to avoid that.”

Koenig explained that every indigenous role in the show is cast with a Native.

“We have been very fortunate to have such talented actors/actresses with this,” she noted. “Some of them have no acting experience at all, but they do such a good job.”

More than anything, she noted, the goal is for the audience to feel engaged with the Native community and its stories through the show.

“I didn’t want to be attached to anything exploitative of Native American people and I think the local people of Wrangell will recognize the effort that was used to highlight this area of the world,” Koenig said.

“And though it starts in Washington state, the story will eventually lead to Alaska. And I think that authenticity will be recognized, as well as our highlighting of the importance of the wisdom of the elders.”

• This article originally appeared in the Wrangell Sentinel.