Spirit Bay

Last updated

Spirit Bay is a Canadian Aboriginal family television series of 13 half-hour episodes that aired on CBC Television and TVOntario from 1982 to 1987. The show focuses on the lives of townsfolk on an Ojibwe reservation town near MacDiarmid, Ontario. Here, the residents have adapted to white society while retaining traditional links to the land through fishing, trapping and hunting. The show details the spiritual kinship between Spirit Bay families, nature, and modern life on the reserve from a young person's viewpoint. Being the first true aboriginal television series, it set the stage for all other native Canadian programming thereafter (such as The Rez , North of 60 and Moccasin Flats ), and paved the way for many famous First Nations, Canadian actors. Episodes were rebroadcast in the United States on the Disney Channel.

Contents

Notable actors from the series

Lesser known elder actors included:

Noted elder aboriginal actor George Clutesi (who played Old Bernard) appeared in two episodes. In one he helps Hack deal with the importance of an ancestral medicine bag, and in the other he teaches Tafia the true value of art.

Child actors from the series

One of the child stars of the show was Trevor Smith, who played Rabbit, a young teen who comes to the reserve from the city after he is adopted. He was the only actor in the series who was not of native origin. Other child actors on the show included:

Theme music

The theme song was penned by Canadian music and acting legend Buffy Sainte Marie.

Filming location

The show was shot on location in MacDiarmid, Ontario on Lake Nipigon at the Rocky Bay First Nation. A modern school in Rocky Bay has been named the Spirit Bay School after the series. As well, the new community gas station has also been named "Spirit Bay".

Episode titles and synopsis

  1. A Time to Be Brave- Tafia has to overcome her fear of trains to help her father survive in the dead of winter.
  2. Rabbit Goes Fishing- Ralph (aka Rabbit), a young orphan from the city, is aloof and unfriendly when he arrives in Spirit Bay. But the kind Cheemo discovers that the boy's false bravado stems from fear of rejection he has experienced in many foster homes. Cheemo convinces Ralph on a fishing trip that he is with his own people and at home.
  3. A Real Kid- Rabbit finds out that his foster mother, Annie, is pregnant, and he runs away for fear he will be ignored.
  4. The Blueberry Bicycle- Elton uses his money to get spare parts for his bike from elder Teawash, and by doing so learns a valuable lesson in the town's bike race.
  5. Words on a Page- Lenore writes a story that could win her a scholarship in the city, but her father is reluctant to let her enter it in a contest.
  6. Circle of Life- The kids find a native skeleton on an island. When a museum comes and take the bones to Thunder Bay the community is outraged; however, they find a way to bring them back for a proper ceremonial burial.
  7. Hack's Choice- Hack's uncle Cole, a former WHA hockey pro, comes back to Spirit Bay to try to weasel him out of his father's medicine bag so he can sell it to collectors.
  8. Rabbit Pulls His Weight- Rabbit literally pulls his weight when he helps out a pilot whose plane has crashed back in the snowy bush.
  9. Hot News- Mavis and her cousin Mary want to write an article about an old Indian recipe, but end up fighting with one another in their canoe while a dangerous forest fire lingers nearby.
  10. Big Save- Spirit Bay's broomball team gets stranded in a blizzard and Rose has to use her survival know-how to save the kids.
  11. Dancing Feathers- Tafia is taken to Toronto where she learns the importance of the annual pow wow festival.
  12. The Pride of Spirit Bay- Tafia learns the value of true art from her elders.
  13. Water Magic- Cheemo, the fisherman, must pay $1500 by the end of the week, or lose his boat. Teawash, the wise old woman, warns him and his helpers to remember to leave something for the Memagwasis- the little people. The boys ridicule Teawash, and later scoff when Cheemo gives back fish to the spirit of the lake.

Related Research Articles

<i>Maple Town</i> 1986 Japanese anime series

Maple Town, also known as Maple Town Stories, is a 1986 Japanese anime series created by Chifude Asakura and directed by Junichi Sato. The series, animated by Toei Animation, consists of 52 half-hour episodes, which aired on ABC in Japan from January 19, 1986, to January 11, 1987.

<i>Franklin</i> (TV series) Childrens television show

Franklin is an animated preschool educational children's television series, based on the Franklin the Turtle books by Brenda Clark and Paulette Bourgeois, and produced by Nelvana. It was followed up by a CGI adaptation, Franklin and Friends.

Road to Avonlea is a Canadian television series first broadcast in Canada between January 7, 1990, and March 31, 1996, as part of the CBC Family Hour anthology series, and in the United States starting on March 5, 1990. It was created by Kevin Sullivan and produced by Sullivan Films in association with the CBC and the Disney Channel, with additional funding from Telefilm Canada. It follows the adventures of Sara Stanley, a young girl sent to live with her relatives in early 20th-century eastern Canada. It was loosely adapted from novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery, with many characters and episodes inspired by her stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Beach</span> Canadian actor

Adam Beach is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles as Victor Joseph in Smoke Signals; Frank Fencepost in Dance Me Outside; Tommy on Walker, Texas Ranger; Kickin' Wing in Joe Dirt; U.S. Marine Corporal Ira Hayes in Flags of Our Fathers; Private Ben Yahzee in Windtalkers; Dr. Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee; NYPD Detective Chester Lake in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; and Officer Jim Chee in the film adaptations of Skinwalkers, Coyote Waits and A Thief of Time. He starred in the Canadian 2012–2014 series Arctic Air and played Slipknot in the 2016 film Suicide Squad. He also performed as Squanto in Disney's historical drama film Squanto: A Warrior's Tale. Most recently he has starred in Hostiles (2017) as Black Hawk and the Netflix original film Juanita (2019) as Jess Gardiner and Edward Nappo in Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog.

<i>Little Annie Fanny</i> Comic by Harvey Kurtzman published in Playboy magazine

Little Annie Fanny is a comics series by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder. It appeared in 107 two- to seven-page episodes in Playboy magazine from October 1962 to September 1988. Little Annie Fanny is a humorous satire of contemporary American society and its sexual mores. Annie Fanny, the title character, is a statuesque, buxom young blonde woman who innocently finds herself nude in every episode. The series is notable for its painted, luminous color artwork and for being the first full-scale, multi-page comics feature in a major American publication.

Any Day Now is an American drama television series that aired on the Lifetime network from 1998 to 2002. Set in Birmingham, Alabama, Any Day Now explored issues around race and friendship and how they affect the lives of two devoted lifelong friends over the years—from the 1960s to the current day. The show stars Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint, portraying best friends since childhood, as they openly and honestly address events in their interracial community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tjilbruke</span> Creation being in Kaurna (an Aboriginal Australian group) mythology

Tjilbruke is an important creation ancestor for the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains in the Australian state of South Australia. Tjilbruke was a Kaurna man, who appeared in Kaurna Dreaming dating back about 11,000 years. The Tjilbruke Dreaming Track or Tjilbruke Dreaming Trail is a major Dreaming trail, which connects sites from within metropolitan Adelaide southwards as far as Cape Jervis, some of which are Aboriginal sacred sites of great significance.

Peter Francis Baldwin was an English actor. He was best known for his role as Derek Wilton in the British soap opera Coronation Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilligan</span> TV character

Gilligan is a fictional character played by Bob Denver on the 1960s TV show Gilligan's Island and its many sequels. Gilligan, affectionately called "little buddy" by the "Skipper", is the bumbling, dimwitted, accident-prone first mate of the SS Minnow. His full name is never given. He wears a trademark red shirt, pale trousers, white sneakers, and white navy cap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reta Shaw</span> American actress (1912–1982)

Reta Shaw was an American character actress known for playing strong, hard-edged, working women in film and on many of the most popular television programs of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. She may be best remembered as the housekeeper, Martha Grant, on the television series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and as the cook, Mrs. Brill, in the 1964 film Mary Poppins.

<i>Mahabharat</i> (1988 TV series) 1988 TV series by B. R. Chopra based on Mahabharata

Mahabharat is an Indian Hindi-language epic television series based on the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. The original airing consisted of a total of 94 episodes and were broadcast from 2 October 1988 to 24 June 1990 on Doordarshan. It was produced by B. R. Chopra and directed by his son, Ravi Chopra. The music was composed by Raj Kamal. The script was written by Pandit Narendra Sharma and the Hindi/Urdu poet Rahi Masoom Raza, based on the epic by Vyasa. Costumes for the series were provided by Maganlal Dresswala. The serial claims to have used the Critical Edition of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute as its basic source with Vishnu Sitaram Sukthankar and Shripad Krishna Belwalkar as its primary editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lenore Zann</span> Canadian actress and politician

Lenore Zann is a Canadian actress and politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Cumberland—Colchester in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Liberal Party. Before entering federal politics, she represented the electoral district of Truro-Bible Hill in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 2009 until 2019 as a member of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party and from June 9, 2019, until September 12, 2019, as an independent.

James Jewell was an American radio actor, producer and director at radio station WXYZ, Detroit, Michigan.

George Clutesi,, was a Tseshaht artist, actor and writer, as well as an expert on and ambassador for all Canadian First Nations culture.

<i>SpongeBob SquarePants</i> season 6 Season of television series

The sixth season of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, created by former marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, aired on Nickelodeon from March 3, 2008, to July 5, 2010, and contained 26 half-hour episodes, being the first season with a different number of half-hours. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The season was executive produced by series creator Hillenburg and supervising producer Paul Tibbitt, who also acted as the showrunner. In 2009, the show celebrated its tenth anniversary on television. The documentary film titled Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on July 17, 2009, and marked the anniversary. SpongeBob's Truth or Square, a television film, and the special episode "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants" were broadcast on Nickelodeon, as part of the celebration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Cheechoo</span> Canadian film director

Shirley Cheechoo is a Canadian Cree actress, writer, producer, director, and visual artist, best known for her solo-voice or monodrama play Path With No Moccasins, as well as her work with De-Ba-Jeh-Mu-Jig theatre group. Her first break came in 1985 when she was cast on the CBC's first nations TV series Spirit Bay, and later, in 1997, she found a role on the CBC's TV series The Rez.

<i>Cleverman</i> (TV series) TV series or program

Cleverman is an Australian television drama program based on an original concept by Ryan Griffen. The series premiered on 1 June 2016 on SundanceTV in the United States and 2 June on ABC in Australia.

<i>Hotel Transylvania: The Series</i> Animated comedy television series

Hotel Transylvania: The Series is an animated comedy television series produced by Sony Pictures Animation and Nelvana in association with Corus Entertainment. It is based on and serves as a prequel to the film Hotel Transylvania (2012), taking place before the events of the first film, focusing on the activities of 114/115-year-old Mavis and her best friends at the Hotel Transylvania while Dracula is away at the Vampire Council.

<i>Phagun Bou</i> Indian television series

Phagun Bou is an Indian Bengali television soap opera that premiered on 19 March 2018 on Star Jalsha. It was produced under Magic Moments Motion Pictures of Saibal Banerjee and Leena Gangopadhyay. The show starred Vikram Chatterjee and Oindrila Sen in lead roles and Koushik Roy in a negative role.