North of North is raunchy, messy and a breath of fresh Arctic air

Believe it or not, the hottest new show this year is set in one of the coldest places on Earth.

North of North is a comedy about a young Inuk mother in the remote fictional town of Ice Cove, Nunavut.

The show, starring Anna Lambe, premiered on CBC Gem and APTN, and will have its global debut on Netflix later this year.

Today on Commotion, Inuk writer Napatsi Folger and Swampy Cree filmmaker Sonya Ballantyne join host Elamin Abdelmhamoud to discuss why the sitcom is such a breath of fresh Arctic air.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: The comedy in the show is raunchy. It's surprising at times. Did it work for you, Sonya?

Sonya: Very much so, because I am a huge advocate for Indigenous representation in film and television. But when people hear that, they think I mean the highbrow, Oscar-winning, honourable stoic portrayals of Indigenous people. But what I really want is stuff like this, that shows us as our lives are actually lived. 

I was so surprised to hear the raunchiness in the show. The second I heard a raunchy joke in the first episode, it was like, "I am here for this," and I sat down a little bit harder; it won me over immediately. I was just cackling out loud the whole time. It was great.

Elamin: I want to talk a little bit about Siaja, because she introduces herself as "a modern Inuk woman, whatever that means." What was your reaction hearing that character introduce herself in that way to set up the arc of this whole show?

Napatsi: I thought it was really great because I think for Indigenous people, like Sonya mentioned, the way we're portrayed in media is often this stereotypical way, from outsiders' perspectives. And me working in Inuit art, I see a lot of that applied to Inuit…. People envision us sort of in the past as hunters and seamstresses, which we still are, of course, but there's so much more depth to what we are now. And modern Inuit are very different from our traditional counterparts in the past. And so, we have to face that all the time when we're outside of community…. I thought it was really fantastic that one of the very first lines in the show was showing that understanding that people don't know what we're like, necessarily, and this is going to show what that is.

Elamin: Yeah, like Siaja is a very rich character who just in the first episode goes through, let's say, a lot of roller coasters — ending with a moment where I literally yelped at the end of the first episode.… [She is] a character whose community lets her mess up, and forgives her. Sonya, what do you make of that?

Sonya: One of the reasons I love the show so much is because there is often this, for lack of a better word, babying of Indigenous men in our communities and less forgiveness for women in general, just because there is this pursuit of perfectionism in our community. I'm certain this is a big part of the Inuk community as well; I can only speak for myself as a Cree person. But there is this pursuit of perfection that makes it hard because you can never be perfect. And when you inevitably fail, people are like, "Look, little Sonya couldn't do it."

It was fun to see an Indigenous man portrayed as a villain in this show, and not as a mustache-twirling villain, but as a person who is nuanced and allowed to have negative qualities … because as you were saying, there is this idea that we're portrayed as a dead people. And so as a dead people, we're only allowed to be portrayed in a positive way. And so I think it was such an amazing thing to see us portrayed in such a, for lack of a better word, messy way. That is so enriching to me as a person because I'm like, yes, finally we can mess up on TV. 

One of my favourite parts of this show is, alcoholism and alcohol in general are always demonized in our community — and rightfully so, because there is alcoholism in our communities. But to see young people doing what young people do, having parties where Britney Spears plays and having booze and shots, was something I like to see because it is a part of our community, and to pretend it isn't is disingenuous to us. And so I just loved all of it. Plus, they played my favourite Lauryn Hill song at the beginning of the episode, so I was like, OK, no matter what happens, I'm here for it until all the episodes have aired.

Watch North of North on CBC Gem now.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.