In Pangnirtung, Nunavut, on the eastern tip of Baffin Island, Rita Claire Mike-Murphy’s two-year-old niece is watching Treehouse TV. The 22-year-old herself grew up watching the Canadian kid’s channel, but now finds the programming akin to giving kids a shot of caffeine.
“It’s loud and fast and chaotic,” she says. “She is watching it and not taking anything in.”
Mike-Murphy hosts the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network series Anaana’s Tent, an educational children’s show aimed at preschoolers that teaches Inuit culture and language through puppets, music, and animation.
After premiering in Inuktitut in May, the English version of the series premiered Sept. 15.
Mike-Murphy’s slow, deliberate delivery clashes with the accelerated pace that has become standard in children’s television.
“When we pitched the show to several broadcasters, they didn’t like our editorial sensibilities,” creator Neil Christopher says. “We weren’t willing to cut a show like ‘Paw Patrol’ with fast cuts where you barely got a chance to focus on a scene before you cut to the next scene.
“We don’t think that’s healthy for children and we don’t think that’s representative of the culture of the North. We couldn’t have done this show with anyone else but APTN because no one else would have allowed the community to do it our way.”
Kids TV show passes on Inuit songs, legends, and language to a new generation
sleepliving 