Canadian Indigenous broadcaster APTN has had more than just a big anniversary to celebrate lately.

The network turned 25 last fall, and earned a Canadian Screen Award in May for its educational kids series Indigenous Art Adventures—a project that was produced completely in-house and hosted by Lance Cardinal of the Bigstone Cree Nation. The show took home the prize for Best Children’s or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series.

Adam Garnet Jones

But it has also been a time of transformation for the esteemed network, which has been looking to grow by exploring new genres of Indigenous content for children and ramping up on collaborations—including its first international co-production.

Adam Garnet Jones (Cree-Métis from Edmonton, Alberta) has been the director of TV content and special events at APTN for the last four years, leading a team that works with independent producers to make all of the network’s content except news. This includes kids content that airs on the main channel, as well as a second channel that launched in September. 

Garnet Jones sat down with Kidscreen this month to discuss his latest strategies for APTN, reflect on the network’s legacy, and tease a few recent kids commissions.

KS: With APTN celebrating a milestone anniversary recently, what comes to mind when looking back on its 25-year legacy?

AGJ: I’ve not been at the network for all of those 25 years—but I remember when the channel launched. I was in my grandparents’ basement in Edmonton and I had just graduated high school and was looking for a career in media. Looking at the launch of the channel, I thought, “Oh wow, this feels like it’s going to make a difference.” I never imagined that I would end up here, but it’s been really wonderful to reflect on that, and think about all of the things that weren’t possible for Indigenous writers, directors and producers before the time of APTN. Nearly everyone who’s doing media work in the community has [worked with] APTN.

KS: What are some kids shows that you feel have made the biggest impact over the years?

AGJ: Wapos Bay (2005-2010) is probably one of our best-known works for kids. It’s a claymation series that takes place in a small community, and it was [rare] for a kids show to live in that kind of an environment. It’s also one of the children’s shows that we made sure was available in English and Cree early on, with a French version later that also helped increase its reach. Above all, I think it was really the quality of the storytelling that set Wapos Bay apart.

Kids content was an early priority for APTN because there’s always been a recognition in our mission that we’re honoring the voices of the elders and the youth. So that focus has been core to our commissioning strategy—an understanding that if we’re not serving kids, then we won’t be able to continue to exist. There’s just so much potential for positive change and growth when you’re [addressing] kids audiences.

Stop-motion series Wapos Bay offered strong character writing and reflected community life for multiple generations, Garnet Jones says.

KS: It’s been nearly a year since you set up APTN Languages, a second channel dedicated to Indigenous-language content, and it carries kids programming just like the main channel.

AGJ: Yes, both networks include content for kids. More and more, we have been trying to make sure that our children’s content has a strong Indigenous-language focus. We’re currently airing kids series in Mi’kmaq, Inuktitut, Cree and more. Throughout the last 25 years, we have aired programming in 54 different Indigenous languages.

Discoverability is always such a hard aspect of linear television, so like most people, we’re always trying to figure out where best to position our content [a consideration that factored into the launch of a second channel]. There’s certainly one audience of people who are fluent speakers and interested in seeing programming in their language. But there’s another audience of language reclaimers, people who have lost language or never had an opportunity to learn—and they’re looking to our content for ways to do that. So this is [also where] kids content seems like a really natural fit.

KS: How else has your kids content strategy been evolving recently?

AGJ: I’ve always felt like partnerships are the way to make things, especially for [kids content], where we’re certainly not making any money. So in order to serve our mandate, increase our audience and make sure that the content is getting out there, we need to look into building partnerships. That way, we can support our producers by having budgets that are reasonable. We want to partner with other broadcasters in ways that we can bring our own expertise in Indigenous content and culture [and combine it with] different areas of expertise in kids programming.

KS: You mentioned discoverability being a key challenge. What moves is APTN making to strengthen its audience reach?

AGJ: The push into partnerships is definitely part of our strategy here. Broadly, I think we will be doing a lot more in the digital space. Lisa Ducharme (director of online content and deliverables) works on our subscription streaming platform APTN Lumi, and she has been doing a lot of research into all the different ways that we could be getting our content out there. There are [avenues like] SVOD, AVOD, FAST, YouTube and airline entertainment. APTN Lumi is also available on Apple TV now, and we’re looking to expand it onto Amazon next.

KS: What demo are you stocking up more content for? Any particular genres you’re after?

AGJ: I’d say preschool is really our focus. We’re seeking programs with preschool language-learning elements—typically animation, but not always. The advantage with animation is that it’s easier to dub into different languages compared to live action. 

That said, I would also love to see real Indigenous kids on the network. That’s such a cool thing when you have an unscripted series with young kids. When you’re talking about representation, it’s just so direct when kids see other kids that are just like them, having a good time and living with their families.

KS: And what kind of formats do you usually look for in pitches?

AGJ: We’re looking for 22-minute episodes, or 11-minute episodes that we can package into 22-minute blocks. 

I’ve been getting pitched more series that are really limited in terms of the number and length of episodes. People have come to us and said that they want to create a six x 11-minute series—but it’s really hard to build an audience on so few episodes. For most of our programming, we want at least nine to 13 episodes.

KS: Are there any recent kids & family commissions you can tell us about? 

AGJ: We have an exciting series coming up called The Trading Post – Advent from producer Julian Black Antelope. It’s an ambitious project that’s quite different for us. [It features] a studio set of a roadside trading post and a whole cast of characters, including some puppets who are really funny. Some of the characters will speak in English and some will speak in Blackfoot. There are animated segments and some documentary shorts incorporated in the same vein as Sesame Street and other similar shows.

KS: Almost like a magazine format—is that something new for your kids slate?

AGJ: Yes. The closest thing we’ve done to that before is probably Anaana’s Tent (Taqqut Productions), which was filmed in Iqaluit, Nunavut but was smaller in the way it was executed. I think that Julian really wants to build a family of characters that feels a lot larger, and he’s doing it extremely well.

Launched in 2018, Taqqut Productions’ preschool show Anaana’s Tent features a multi-format mix of stories, music and educational segments.

KS: What other new formats have you been exploring recently? 

AGJ: There’s a live-action show called Maui and Elvis that we greenlit quite recently, which is more of a co-viewing series and not for preschoolers. But it’s our first international co-production and it’s produced by Canada’s Mosaic Entertainment and New Zealand’s Whitebait Media and Firefly Films. It’s almost like an Indigenous Stranger Things type of scripted series, but not as scary.

It’s [about] these kids investigating what happened in New Zealand in the 1970s, and it connects to something that happened in Canada around the same time in this Māori-Métis alien connection. It’s going to be very fun and very different for us.

KS: That premise sounds incredible, and this being the network’s first international co-pro is also exciting. Is that something you want to do more?

AGJ: I was very involved with imagineNATIVE (the Indigenous screen content organization in Toronto) from the early days, and international co-pros—particularly between Canada and Aotearoa (New Zealand)—was something we were always looking into for opportunities. 

In fact, there was a 2021 feature film called Night Raiders that was the first Indigenous co-production between Canada and New Zealand. So there’s a lot of broader interest in this space, but the difficult part is finding the right Indigenous projects that organically speak to audiences in both countries. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.