arcticAir
A R C T I C A I R
Tisdale - Thursday, January 19, 2012

For several years now CBC television has been very short on original Canadian drama content. They have concentrated their efforts on news, sports and a few comedy shows. I have to admit that I have not tuned in to the “Republic of Doyle” which is indeed a CBC original drama and no doubt there are some folks who have appreciated this programme. Somehow an Irish Newfoundland private detective just did not seem interesting to me. I suspect that I felt the show was just a bit to regional or for that matter almost foreign to me so I have not checked it out.

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Some years ago CBC aired a television series that captured the whole country’s attention because it was part of Canada’s emerging nature and it was able to tell the story of northern Canadian aboriginal people and “North of 60” did that by using real aboriginal performers and some stories that for many of us who have spent time on reserves and in Canada’s north, hit the mark. I think CBC has done it again. The new series “Arctic Air” that ran it’s second episode this week on Tuesday night lived up to its hype and showed that the series is more than just a good pilot but has the makings of a story line that will involve its viewers just as did “North of 60.”

It is more than twenty years since I was last in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and in the first two shows of this series we have been able to see how this little northern capital city on the North shore of Great Slave Lake has turned into a modern place. For me that was the first message in the show and important one. Canada’s frontier is the North and we have not even scratched the surface in knowing the mystery and wealth that this part of Canada has to offer. This is the future of this country, not the over crowded towns and cities that huddle along the American border. This alone is a good reason to check out this television series. Not only is the setting in a real environment but the writers and cinematographers have taken the step of giving us real footage and stories in real places up the MacKenzie Valley. This week’s show had been diving into maps twice to confirm the locations of Norm Wells and the incredible scenery of the Nahanni Valley. They even gave us a rare look at the park and valley with a low pass through the mountains and over an area that requires a special permit just to overfly.

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Okay, for a television programme to be worth watching is needs more than great scenery. You must be engaged by the characters. This television show has a very large cast because it involves the staff of a small airline, the family and friends of people who have grown up and lived in the North and individuals who have issues that need to be worked out. Arctic Air scores on all of these points. Adam Beach, the Anicinabi lead actor in this show is from Winnipeg and has become a major Hollywood movie star. The writers have created a character that has a past and definitely a future just as the stunning Pascale Hutton, who was born in Creston, British Columbia and has distinguished herself in a whole range of very popular television shows, Hutton plays the show’s female lead and we definitely are going to be involved in her character’s role as head pilot of the family company but the struggle of a career woman.

No matter how great the performers, how engaging the setting or fitting the scenario for the story line everything that you see on screen comers down to the writing. The television show “Arctic Air” is being put together by the Omni Film Productions, the same company that produces the History Channel’s “Ice Pilots” and to get the show started they went to Ian Weir, a British Columbia writer who has been doing television and radio for a very long time, long enough that among his credits are episodes of “Beachcombers”. Mr. Weir wrote the first two episodes of the new series and two others to air later.

There is another aspect to the creation of this television show. Canada is and always has been a multicultural society, first with its multitude of aboriginal and linguistic groups that span the continent and are as diverse as can possibly be imagined in culture and traditions. Canada’s First Nations are an infinitely diverse population but there is one thing they share with one another from coast to coast to coast and that is their struggle for a place in the Canadian society. In the whole of the country they are not a large population but in the Western Canadian provinces they are only marginally a minority. Poverty, education, unemployment are only a few of the problems that they face as a people and no matter if they are Cree, Deni or Anicinabi they have these problems in common with one another. Federal, provincial and municipal governments know that the country’s aboriginal population is not sharing in the development of this country and have been unable to find effective ways to improve conditions on the reserves or in the towns and cities for First Nations people. But there is hope and were we to see educational success the issue of aboriginal equality in society to be solved.

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Eric Howe wrote a report for the Gabriel Dumont Institute in Saskatoon in which he said that developing through education the aboriginal people of Saskatchewan we could realise more wealth than the development of potash mines. The key to empowerment through education is a complex one but the most important factor of all is the attitude and expectations of the individual. If a person can see that developing themselves will lead to a better life almost nothing can stop them. The whole premise of Arctic Air is a First Nations person with a business management education cannot only succeed but he can do so with the odds piled high against him. All across Canada well educated First Nations people are showing themselves and their fellow Canadians what they can achieve and it is truly inspiring.

Arctic Air is not a television show about First Nations people, it is a show about a First Nations person. Facing discrimination, using his education and with the tools at hand confronting a world of technology, finance and all the while doing so in the context of the Canadian northern environment. Precisely where the majority of Canada’s First Nations people live and struggle to survive. Adam Beach has both in his work and his person missions, to be a role model and step forward to show the way. He was eager to take this part, leaving behind in Los Angeles many lucrative offers to taken on this challenge, because of the greater meaning it has for him as a person and what it might mean to others.

Arctic Air is running on CBC at 9:00 on Tuesday nights but you can see the first two episodes on the CBC web site or download them on iTunes. We are not viewing them as they are broadcast because Access our cable provider does not carry CBC in HD and this is a show that really should be watched in high definition. It is the best CBC programme I have seen when viewed in HD.

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