Listen to the full first season of this North of 60 rewatch show

“When we were in middle school, they flew drummers from the high school in Fort Simpson to the set.”

Lynx River never existed, but Melaw Nakehk’o and Brie O’Keefe know exactly how it would have looked and sounded.

The community at the heart of North of 60 was modelled on a Dehcho village like Fort Simpson, where Nakehk’o and O’Keefe grew up watching the show on CBC.

Thirty years later, they’re rewatching every episode in a new podcast: Lynx River Revisited.

North of 60 ran to 90 episodes between 1992 and 1997 plus five made-for-TV movies. Lynx River Revisited’s first season is now complete and you can listen to it here.

“They really tried to make it as authentic as possible. We knew about it and we got to see people we knew on it, and that blew our minds,” said O’Keefe of the original show.

“The actor who plays the chief, Tom Jackson, used to come and shadow Melaw’s dad [then-chief Jim Antoine, who later became the NWT’s premier] on constituency visits to do character development. That speaks to both the dedication the showmakers had in trying to get it right and accurate, and how much of a hit it eventually became.”

While Nakehk’o discovered plenty of the show’s elements had gone over her head as a child the first time around, rewatching North of 60 also filled her with inspiration at just how faithful the producers were to the Dehcho.

“It was one of the first television shows about Indigenous people in Canada with a large Indigenous cast. It was mainstream. It was on CBC. We all watched it at the same time,” she said.

“It really kickstarted a lot of Indigenous people’s careers and I find that they took a lot of care in the storytelling. Rewatching it again, actually, they did a really good job in a lot of things.”

Some Lynx River Revisited episodes feature special guests. Episode two, for example, stars Jim Antoine discussing the show from the perspective of being Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation’s chief at the time.

“I feel like North of 60 walked so shows like Reservation Dogs and North of North could run,” said O’Keefe.

“You see a lot of things in North of North especially around the styling, the modern representation, and really complex, three-dimensional representation of those Indigenous characters, and that’s why it’s so compelling to people who have no touchpoint with this context, which is what North of 60 was as well.

“You’re both fascinated by it, but then you get to see it represented in not the traditional spaghetti western, colonial kind of way. And that’s really powerful, because it’s a lot more human.”

You can listen to Cabin Radio’s own podcast with Nakehk’o and O’Keefe describing why they wanted to return to the show, and you can find Lynx River Revisited on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms.

Here’s a link to every North of 60 episode and TV movie.