Earrings were such an important part of the costume designer for North of North, the hit new comedy about a young Inuk woman who’s trying to change her life, that they got their own line in the budget.Jasper Savage/Courtesy of CBC/APTN/Netflix
Fashioned from antler or bone and adorned with tiny flowers, artisan Tammy Hannaford’s earrings look like they were made for North of North, a CBC/APTN co-production that is now streaming globally on Netflix. But actually, they were made for Bernice Clarke.
Clarke, an actor who also runs Uasau Soap, plays Geela, the main character’s mother-in-law, on the sitcom about a young Inuk woman trying to forge a new path. Well before she landed the part, though, the two friends had made a trade, Hannaford’s earrings for some of Clarke’s soaps. Later, when Clarke took on the role of Geela, it only made sense to wear earrings from her personal collection – and in a sweet bit of kismet, that included one of Hannaford’s designs, which she sells through her small business, Porcupine Kunik.
“Trades feel nice to me,” says Hannaford, who was born in the remote Inuit community of Rigolet on the north coast of Labrador, but now lives in rural Ontario. “A huge part of me making jewellery is so that I can earn money for my family, but money makes me uncomfortable and trades just feel more right somehow.
As anyone who has watched North of North might guess intricate earrings play a central part in Inuk fashion sensibility. So much so that when assistant costume designer Keenan “Nooks” Lindell came on board, he jokingly messaged the creators of the show to tell them they would need a separate line item in the costume budget for earrings.
Inuk designer Tammy Hannaford, who sells her earrings under the name Porcupine Kunik, uses antler and bone as her main materials.Supplied
“I was joking, and they were like, ‘no we’ve talked about it and we will’,” says Lindell of his early conversations with Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, the two cinematic powerhouses behind this spring’s hit comedy. “When the show happened, sure enough they did.”
Lindell, an artist and designer from Arviat, Nunavut who makes jewellery himself and helped source many of the earrings featured, says these accessories function as so much more than “just flashy earrings that look beautiful” to the Inuk women who wear them.
“Earrings mattered on a show like this because they matter in real life,” he explains. “Growing up with my mom and lots of aunties and cousins, and just knowing how much they love earrings, I knew it was going to be an important part of the show because it’s an important part of Inuit life.”
He doesn’t wear earrings himself, but he says he had a glimpse into their cultural significance when he was at an event “down south” and forgot his cufflinks he’d made from ivory.
“I realized that everything I wore was store-bought, and I just felt kind of empty,” Lindell says.
It’s why Lindell says that you just simply couldn’t have made North of North without these earrings made by Indigenous creators like Hannaford, as well as Warren Steven Scott and Niio Perkins.
“Well you could, but it wouldn’t feel authentic,” he adds.
Hannaford’s earrings ended up on the show thanks to kismet. She previously made them for actor Bernice Clarke, who wore pieces from her personal collection while filming.Supplied
As for Hannaford, while seeing her earrings on North of North gave her a sense of personal pride, watching the show make a global impact has been about something bigger than just her own satisfaction, or the boost in sales and inquiries she’s seen since the show came out.
“I feel strengthening of the bonds between so many people – especially Inuit. I just have such big feelings and emotions about this show. I know so many of us do,” she says. “Feeling a shared sense of excitement and pride and feeling seen and heard is a special thing.”
Watching North of North, which was filmed in Iqaluit and recruited many local people for the production, Hannaford says she finds herself spotting familiar faces or pieces by other makers or designers that she knows from the Inuit community.
“I keep thinking things like, ‘I wonder who built that Kamutik?’ ‘What a beautiful parka,’” she says. “I even thought that the family of that little dog they showed on the road must be so excited to see their dog on TV!”
Most of all, she says, she is proud to see her community reflected in a refreshingly authentic way – down to the all-important earrings.
“Too much of the world – even within Canada – is not familiar with Inuit culture,” she says, “and to be represented in such a fun and unique yet accurate way is really exciting.”
One in a regular series of stories. To read more, visit our Indigenous Enterprises section. If you have suggestions for future stories, reach out to IE@globeandmail.com.