The third season of the award-winning Molly of Denali premieres next month on November 7 on GBH 2. Molly and her friends will create their own Alaska Native superheroes, host a Yup’ik exchange student and volunteer to count endangered beluga whales in Cook Inlet. Created by a team that includes Indigenous advisors, the program is the first nationally distributed children's program to feature Native American and Alaska Native lead characters. We chatted with Yatibaey Evans, the series’ Native Alaskan creative producer, about what it takes to create the program.

In its second broadcast season, Molly of Denali reached 2.7 million viewers per week and the third podcast season had over 12 million audio streams.

What's been most meaningful for you personally in doing this work?

I used to be the Alaska Native Education Director for the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, where I worked with more than 2,000 students and their families every year. Everyone in the district was working together to share our Alaska Native history and understand how it has impacted our lives today. Being on the Molly team has given me the amazing opportunity to be able to expand that message — that we have an amazing wealth of knowledge and experiences to share with the world, for the benefit of all.

What impact do you hope this knowledge will have?

If we can help educate kids from a young age to be open-minded and accepting of diverse communities, cultures and people, they'll grow up to be incredible leaders who engage with people of all backgrounds.

How many Alaska Native advisors are involved and what roles do they play?

We have 88 Indigenous collaborators. We have people on the production team; the creative producer (me); design coordinator; animation artists; writers, singers and musicians; language advisors; cultural advisors; and even science advisors. And all the Indigenous characters are all voiced by Indigenous actors.

How does Molly of Denali’s creative process set it apart from other children's programming?

Traditionally programs have used one advisor. But one advisor can only speak for their own experiences. In Alaska, there are 229 different tribes, so it's important to have people who come from a multitude of backgrounds, tribes and clan affiliations work on the series.

What do you think the impact is of that kind of representation in the non-Native population?

I think it's been eye-opening. People have told me they had no idea about Alaska Native peoples' experiences, such as securing our right to vote in 1945 and our children being forced into schools that eradicated their sense of Native identity and sometimes abused them. In conversations with African American people many shared their amazement at the similarities between both our populations’ past experiences. It’s important to share our collective experiences in a way that people can hear the deeper messages of unity, community and collaboration, family, respect and dignity. The different animated stories depicting Alaska Native peoples' experiences is a way to open up an important conversation for everybody.

The new season of Molly of Denali begins at 7am on November 7 on GBH 2 and then can be streamed here.

A Molly of Denali special that aired on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, called Bubbling Up/Eeenie Eenie Aye Over, will be repeated on October 31 on GBH 2.