In ‘North of North,’ a Joyous Celebration of Being Inuk

In this moment of supporting Canadian-made products, be it coffee, strawberries or the arts, it’s a great time to actively look for films, limited series and television programs that are homegrown.

And I have some good news. There’s great stuff on ye olde CBC. Allegiance, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Nature of Things have been joined by a number of new shows. But let’s dive into one of the most fun: North of North, which premiered on Jan. 7 on CBC and APTN. The series has since rolled out a weekly episode (there are eight in total), available on CBC, CBC Gem, APTN and soon enough on Netflix.

As the characters have developed and found their feet, it’s become a true pleasure to watch. And it’s a reminder of what representation and a seat at the TV table really means in this resurgence of the antediluvian forces of racism, misogyny and multiple grotesqueries south of the American border. It’s not that those same things don’t exist in Canada, but maybe it’s the ideal moment to squash them flat, like the creepy crawlies that they are.

Filmed in Iqaluit, North of North makes good use of the Artic landscape of Nunavut, but there is considerable beauty everywhere you look. It’s in the casting, production design and costuming. The show involves the local Iqaluit community both onscreen and behind the scenes, as well as the work of Inuit artisans.

There’s siren-call quality to the Arctic, and North of North brilliantly reflects the uniqueness and majesty of the place. The show is a celebration of Inuk culture, which is embedded in each episode with details that add up to a glorious portrait of a place and its people. Also, it’s really funny and sweet.

The action revolves around Siaja (played by Anna Lambe), a young woman trying to find her way. After marrying her high school boyfriend and having a baby, she’s come to the realization that she doesn’t really know herself beyond the conventional definitions of wife and mother.

What’s a woman to do but burn down the house, metaphorically? Cue up a spectacular flameout in the middle of the town’s annual hunting celebrations, when Siaja’s husband Ting (Kelly William) manages to dump his spouse overboard during a seal hunting trip.

The accidental immersion brings Siaja face-to-face with the mythological sea-goddess Nuliajuk (played, naturally, by actual goddess and celebrated Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq).

Nuliajuk has a few choice words for the young woman, which all amount to “Change your life, girl.”

Set in the fictional community of Ice Cove in real-life Iqaluit, the action takes place in a typical small town, where pretty much everyone knows everyone else’s business, and residents are more than happy to offer opinions on their neighbours’ behaviour or life choices.

Meanwhile, Alistair (Jay Ryan), a ruggedly handsome engineer, and Kuuk (Braeden Clarke), his equally toothsome assistant, have come to town. Turns out there is more than meets the eye to this pair, which Siaja finds out soon enough.

All of this is happening while members of Siaja’s family are moving through their own daily struggles. Her mother Neevee (Maika Harper) is dealing with the challenges of sobriety as well as the difficulties of finding available sex partners in a small town. And Siaja’s young daughter Bun (Keira Belle Cooper) is getting in trouble in school after giving her teacher a couple of middle finger salutes.

Lead actor Lambe, who plays Siaja, is a natural comedian. Her exchanges with her family members and workmates frontline the show’s good humour while simultaneously and smartly touching on issues like poverty, addiction and the lingering effects of colonialism.

The latter is most directly embodied in the form of white administrators. In Ice Cove, one such person is Helen (Mary Lynn Rajskub) the manager of the town’s community centre. A clueless but not unlikable character, Helen takes a chance on Siaja, offering the young woman a job. The fact that Helen has a pattern of firing her assistants for the smallest infraction and Siaja has a way of bringing chaos in her wake makes for a match made in hell. Or perhaps, on ice.

In the first few weeks of her new job, Siaja manages to set the town dump on fire, inadvertently causes the passing of an Indigenous Elder, alongside a few other disasters, both big and small.

Luckily, she has the support of a few close friends, including Colin (Bailey Poching) and Millie (Zorga Qaunaq), who operate the local radio station. The pair functions as something of a Greek chorus on the action, offering advice and acidic commentary on their friend’s flailing attempts to remake her life.

So, life in North of North is messy and complicated and confusing, much like life everywhere else in the world.

A study in joyous specificity

Creators Stacey Aglok MacDonald (The Grizzlies) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Angry Inuk) have fashioned something that feels quite new. Sure, it’s an ensemble piece built around the idiosyncrasies of a small town. Certainly, there have been precedents (I’m looking at you, North of Sixty!). But North of North’s commitment to honouring and celebrating Inuk culture gives it a distinctive feeling. The beauty is in the details.

From the soundtrack (filled with pop hits reinvented by Indigenous performers) to tiny telling moments, such as Siaja telling her boss that the community hates de-icing salt because it’s hard on their traditional footwear, or a rousing game of Walrus Dick baseball, which I’m still a little unclear on the rules of, the smaller, joyously crafted specificity adds up.

For fun and pleasure, it’s a joy to watch. But there is something deeper and more critical in evidence as well.

By us, for us

North of North is a reminder of the values that we Canadians want to live up to. Things like diversity, equity and inclusion. DEI stuff that shouldn’t be mocked and stripped away as it is now under the Trump administration, but supported and understood as a critical instrument for righting historical wrongs and moving towards a better, more egalitarian future for all.

In this aspect, the show takes me back to a period when the CBC was the main avenue for offering Canadian culture to Canadians.

Perhaps it’s a consequence of growing up a in rural part of B.C., but CBC played a huge role in shaping my understanding of the world. And it still does.

CBC has been ubiquitous in my childhood in the Kootenays, from the theme song of As It Happens flipped on like a sacred rite at dinnertime, to Hockey Night in Canada every damn Saturday evening. If you visited anyone in my hometown, rest assured a good portion of the conversation would be dedicated to the CBC.

Whatever was on, you watched, whether it was iconic series like Anne of Green Gables or made-for-television movies like 1984’s Hockey Night (seek it out if you haven’t seen it).

It wasn’t just CBC Television. NFB shorts and animated films like The Big Snit and The Cat Came Back ran in movie theatres before the feature films.

To this day, however, many decades later, lines from certain CBC shows can still reduce me and my sister to insane laughter. Some of these productions were, how should I put this gently, not good, but they were ours.

Watching recent productions like Allegiance or North of North, I feel a kind of protectiveness steal over me, like one would for family members.

As the American cultural juggernaut continues to suck up our time and attention for the worse lately, it’s a relief to watch programs like North of North that tell stories about contending with challenges. They address race, poverty and other harder, thornier issues with humour, compassion and a foundational humanity.

Qualities that I want to believe are still key components of who we are.