Animated Indigenous series filled with friends of all kinds
Before they became chums, they were strangers with little professional acting experience.
Elise Armitage, 17, and James Siegers, 11, are two of the young local voice actors featured in Chums, an animated children's series with an all-Indigenous cast and creative team from Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
The show — the second season of which premières on APTN today in Anishinaabemowin, Cree and English — follows a girl named Flies with Eagles and her ragtag group of animal friends as they learn about life on Turtle Island pre-contact.
'Romper is a fast-moving, energetic, but really empathetic bunny. So, pretty much me,' says Armitage, who is of Cree heritage and lives in Miniota, a small municipality 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
'Pterry the ptarmigan, he's pretty energetic, probably not as energetic as Romper, but he's a really fun character to voice. Every now and then he'll crack a joke, which is similar to me,' says Siegers, who lives in Oakbank and is a member of the Waskaganish Cree Nation in northern Quebec.
Voice acting has been a learning experience for both up-and-comers.
Prior to auditioning for Chums, Siegers had worked as a photo double on Crave drama Little Bird and has since appeared on several episodes of sitcom Acting Good — both Manitoba-based productions.
Armitage is a former member of the Westman Youth Choir with performance credits in community musical theatre productions.
'It took me a while to really get comfortable in the studio. I was so nervous because I didn't want to screw up or get fired,' she says.
SUPPLIED
From left: Pterry the ptarmigan, Romper the rabbit, Ira the eaglet, Flies with Eagles and Emiree the baby beaver
Siegers also describes his first few days in the recording booth as nerve-racking.
'But after that I was like, 'Oh, this is actually pretty good and fun,'' he says.
Their initial reactions to hearing themselves on screen as a ptarmigan and a rabbit ranged, respectively, from 'funny' to 'weird, like in a good way.'
Other local youth voice actors include Olivia Sinclair as Flies with Eagles and Zacchary Fontaine as Emiree the baby beaver.
The 11-minute episodes are geared towards preschoolers and rooted in Indigenous teachings, with walk-on appearances from a wide cast of wildlife, from squirrels to coyotes to a young goose named Ryan the gosling, who has blue eyes and a swoop of blond hair.
Chums is written, directed and produced by Dennis and Eric Jackson, a father-and-son team from Saskatchewan, and executive produced by Winnipeg's Zoot Pictures.
Eleven-year-old James Siegers voices Pterry the ptarmigan
The show, which made its television debut in spring 2024, has been greenlit for three seasons and picked up by global distributor Serial Maven Studios.
The simple 3D design of Chums is also homegrown.
Unable to find space at a Canadian animation studio during the height of the pandemic, Zoot decided to build its own.
Winnipeg Jets Game Days
On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.
'We have animators in Saskatchewan and here in Manitoba,' Zoot principal Leslea Mair says, adding the goal is to expand the studio while helping train local animators.
'It's a bit of an incubator for animation personnel and we've had great success with people taking on bigger pieces.'
The success of Chums is thanks in large part to the strength of its Indigenous-led storytelling and creative, Mair says.
Elise Armitage, 17, is the voice of Romper the rabbit.
'As someone from a settler background, I may have a hand in the story editing or I may have comments, but I don't make the final creative decisions, the Indigenous team does. That's something we have to do in order to have it really ring true.'
eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com
Eva WasneyReporter
Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.
Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
8 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Natalie Sue wins Leacock Medal for Humour for novel ‘I Hope This Finds You Well'
Natalie Sue's debut novel 'I Hope This Finds You Well' has won this year's Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. The $25,000 award is given to the best Canadian book of literary humour published in the previous year. The novel follows the story of an office worker in her early thirties who one day stumbles upon all of her colleagues' private emails and decides to use their gossip to help save her job. 'I Hope This Finds You Well' was published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. Sue is a Calgary-based author of Iranian and British descent who spent her early years living in western Canada. Runners-up, who received $5,000 each, were Greg Kearney for 'An Evening With Birdy O'Day,' about an aging hairstylist who lost connection with his childhood best friend when he left to pursue a pop music career, and Patricia J. Parsons for 'We Came From Away: That Summer on the Rock,' which follows one woman's attempt to reconnect her family with Newfoundland. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2025.
Japan Forward
9 hours ago
- Japan Forward
Be a Global Catalyst for Communications
このページを 日本語 で読む JAPAN Forward has launched "Ignite," a series to share the voices of students in Japan in English. How do they see the world, and what insights will they share with us? Individually and collectively, today's students will shape our global future. Let's listen. This first essay, along with the four that follow, introduces the winning works of the Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC) high school student English essay contest. In its 17th year, the nationwide contest has been held annually since 2009. The first essay, by Ashiya Gakuen Senior High School student Tetsu Den, follows. First in the Series, 'Ignite' In the gloomy cabin of the airplane, I was tormented by extreme nervousness. "How will I get through this three-week homestay?" My head was filled with the stories I'd read recently about other Asian people's negative experiences abroad. No sooner had we arrived than the glare of the sun was shining on our Canadian host families. Suddenly, a man wearing a blue shirt came running over, calling my name. "Hi, Tetsu! I finally found you." It was my host father. On our way home, I felt extremely uncomfortable in the awkward situation. My fatigue after the flight and the tension of meeting someone new hindered conversation with him. Finally, his first question broke the silence. "Hey, where are you from? How is life in your country?" His eager eyes and attitude showed me his tolerance and generosity. I overcame my hesitation and said, "Actually, I'm not Japanese, but I was brought up in Japan. My father is Chinese, and my mother is Korean. So, I have had some linguistic and identification problems in Japan, but my life there is fulfilling and..." Before my next words, he immediately interjected, "Wow! So do you speak four languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean?" I nodded. "That's amazing! You're so multicultural! I think that someday you'll be a diplomat." His admiration was unexpected, and his words cleared away the fog of my worries. [Then] I realized that I had been susceptible to social media stories about national biases. I had read that a lot of people overseas blamed all Asians for COVID-19, and I was braced for intolerance in Canada. Tetsu Den, winner of the Grand Prize and America-Japan Society President's Award for his English essay. Den wrote about what he learned from a homestay in Canada. (©IIBC) Before this trip, I had been struggling with my two national identities: Chinese and Korean. It was the biggest anxiety in my life. Living in Japan makes things even more complex. I've often seen examples in the morning news of the volatile relationship between these three nations – historical problems such as the territorial disputes, as well as economic matters. Sometimes in the morning, the first thing I hear isn't my parents' warm greeting but harsh criticism of China and Korea on the TV. Every time I heard such news, my heart dropped. At school in Japan, I worried about how my friends viewed me, and even when I visited China and Korea, I felt people were suspicious of my mixed heritage. To make things worse, due to COVID-19, discrimination against Asian people seemed to be fierce around the world. I thought there was no country where I could bare my complicated background freely. My host father was the first person to change that. The day after I arrived, my Canadian host father suggested we take a stroll. As we walked, I thanked him for his cheerful words in the car and explained how I had been afraid of going abroad. I told him, "The world might be prejudiced, but you're generous and fair." He thought I was flattering him and didn't think what he had said was special, but it was to me. We talked more about the cultural differences and similarities between our countries. At the end, he smiled. "You've made me realize how gullible I was. From now on I'll trust life experience over social media stories." I felt great accomplishment for rectifying his misunderstandings about Asian nations. My host father taught me that I should be proud of my diverse family history and the unique view of the world that having three home countries gives me. Also, I learned how hard it is to have an understanding free from media influence. At the same time, I realized how fair my Japanese friends have been, how unique my background is, and how blessed I am. I am convinced that any discord between nations can be relieved by communication, acceptance, and learning that we all have similar values. From now on, my life's duty is to be a global catalyst and bring people together. Tetsu Den won the 2023 Grand Prize and America-Japan Society President's Award for his English-language essay. At the time, he was a second-year student at Ashiya Gakuen Senior High School in Hyogo Prefecture. He explained his thoughts about the essay as follows: "I went to Canada this summer to study abroad as part of a school project. In this essay, I summarized my experiences of 'communication without borders' in Canada, a country known as a multinational nation, and my thoughts about my own background before studying abroad. When I wrote the essay, I seriously considered how I should be as an international person from now on, and was able to recognize once again the greatness of communication between different cultures. I am grateful to everyone who gave me such a fulfilling experience." Author: Tetsu Den, Ashiya Gakuen Senior High School, Hyogo Prefecture このページを 日本語 で読む
CBC
15 hours ago
- CBC
'Today feels so empowering': Ceremony at The Forks celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day
Social Sharing Lori Bateman has woven her path to healing one bead at a time after the death of her son three years ago. But with every beadwork piece she has created since, there has also been an opportunity for her to reconnect with her First Nations identity. "This is a whole learning curve for me," said Bateman, who is from Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation, in Treaty 1 territory on the west side of Lake Manitoba. "It all has to do with my culture." Bateman joined others at The Forks in Winnipeg on Saturday to celebrate First Nations, Métis and Inuit culture during National Indigenous Peoples Day. "It means a lot to our people," Bateman said. "It's a great day for us." She set up a stand with her beadwork at The Forks — a national historic site where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet that was an Indigenous meeting place for thousands of years before colonization, and which was among the many locations that hosted Indigenous Peoples Day events Saturday. Standing in front of a glowing fire, Mary Black held her drum up to the sky and began playing and singing in front of a group of people who came to celebrate at The Forks. "Today feels so empowering," said Black, from Wanipigow (also known as Hollow Water First Nation), on Treaty 5 territory in eastern Manitoba. "The thrill, the ecstasy of drumming is something that will never leave you," Black said. "It's almost like connecting with that heartbeat of Mother Earth." The annual celebration is a testament to the strength First Nations, Métis and Inuit have shown throughout generations to keep their traditions alive, Black said, even when institutions like Canada's residential school system tried to strip their language and identity from them. "The fact that we even have the opportunity to do this today is miraculous," she said. National Indigenous Peoples Day has been officially observed every June 21 in Canada since 1996, coinciding with the summer solstice — a significant time in many Indigenous cultures. Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike joined in the celebration at The Forks Saturday, a display of unity Black said she was happy to see. "Seeing our relatives that live on treaty land but may not be Indigenous … feeling welcome enough to come into the circle and make their offerings is absolutely beautiful," she said. Premier Wab Kinew acknowledged the strength and resilience of Indigenous people in a statement on Saturday, thanking First Nations, Métis and Inuit leaders who have come together to help during an "unprecedented wildfire season" that has forced thousands of people, many from First Nations communities, out of their homes.
