Wapos Bay: The Series

It's too bad we don't get Canada's Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) here in the US. And that APTN hasn't released much of its content on DVD. Because it's putting out a lot of Native TV shows and movies that I haven't heard of.

Here's one of them:

Wapos Bay: The SeriesThe Stop Motion adventures of a family on a reservation in Northern Saskatchewan.Wapos Bay SeriesThe Wapos Bay animated series is a charming and often humorous look at the contemporary life and culture of the northern Cree. The fictitious community set in northern Saskatchewan is home to the main characters: young Raven, Talon and their cousin T-Bear. Educators can use the series to teach children about northern Cree culture through the exploits of the young characters and their extended family: kohkum (grandmother), mushom (grandfather), Sarah, Jacob and Alphonse.

Married for twenty years and parents to two children, Dennis and Melanie founded Dark Thunder Productions (DTP) in 1998. Their first project, Journey Through Fear, won the Telefilm Canada/Television Northern Canada Award at the 1998 Banff Festival. The enchanting world of Wapos Bay was first brought to life in Christmas at Wapos Bay, an animated special directed, produced and written by Dennis and edited by Melanie, which premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Drawing on this success, they joined forces with the National Film Board of Canada to produce the Wapos Bay series.

Dennis and Melanie Jackson use stop-motion animation to create the Wapos Bay community and characters. Both draw inspiration from their experiences growing up in Aboriginal communities in Saskatchewan—Dennis from his community of Sandy Bay and from his mushom (grandfather), who hunted and trapped to make a living for his twenty-two children, and Melanie from her family and her own Saulteaux people in southern SaskatchewanComment:  For a list of the series episodes, see Wapos Bay: The Series. For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.