Winnipeg’s Eagle Vision and Spike & Sadie Media in Toronto have optioned a kids book called Indigenous Ingenuity and are planning to develop it as a 10 x 30-minute factual series. 

Deidre Havrelock (a member of Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta) and Edward Kay penned this acclaimed book for tweens that details the underrepresented history of innovations made by Indigenous North Americans in sectors like astronomy, medicine, engineering and agriculture. Christy Ottaviano Books and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers published the title in May 2023. 

Havrelock and Kay have joined the creative team working on the Indigenous Ingenuity TV series, along with Spike & Sadie MD Ira Levy and Eagle Vision’s Lisa Meeches, Rebecca Gibson, Dinae Robinson and Kyle Irving. The Shaw Rocket Fund and the Canada Media Fund are also on board as development partners.

Set outdoors with two young Indigenous hosts, each ep will showcase the practical science of traditional knowledge through challenges, experiments and the guidance of Indigenous STEM experts and practitioners.

The show is Spike & Sadie’s first kids project. “[The book] completely blew me away,” Levy tells Kidscreen. “Celebrating the infinite ways Indigenous scientific discoveries and technological inventions have made our world a better place was eye opening.”

Within a week of hitting retail, Indigenous Ingenuity topped Amazon’s list of best-selling children’s books on inventors and inventions. Over the past year, it has also earned honors from orgs including the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, School Library Journal and the Nerdy Book Club Awards.

Eagle Vision, an Indigenous-owned prodco, was behind classic kids series Tipi Tales, which originally aired from 2003 to 2007 on APTN and Treehouse. More recently, Eagle produced Reclaim(ed) in 2022. Snapchat’s first-ever Canadian original series, it features interviews with First Nations youth and explores social issues from a Gen-Z perspective.

Featured image: Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge (2023)