---

From Ice Cove to the World: Anna Lambe on Reclaiming Inuit Storytelling

Matriarch Movement Podcast · Season 6 “Indigenous Voices of this Generation” featuring Anna Lambe

This week on the Matriarch Movement podcast, host Shayla Oulette Stonechild talks with Anna Lambe, an Inuk actress, host and emerging filmmaker from Iqaluit, Nunavut. Anna first broke out in The Grizzlies and Trickster, and both roles earned her Canadian Screen Award nominations. She now leads North of North, the hit series from APTN, CBC and Netflix, which won her the 2026 Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Performer in a Comedy Series. She also has projects coming up alongside Brad Pitt and with Elevation Pictures, plus her own directorial debut.

As Anna gets ready to take us back to Ice Cove for Season 2, she and Shayla talk about following your intuition, putting down burdens that were never yours to carry, and why Indigenous joy is a radical thing to put on screen.

---

Learning on set

Shayla and Anna met on the set of Trickster about eight years ago. Anna never trained formally as an actor. She was studying at university and planned to work in policy back home in Nunavut. Instead, she found “joy and freedom and sense of community” in film and TV, along with a way to speak up on issues in a voice that was “so deeply me,” rather than on behalf of an organization or government.

She says her intuition has guided her: “Despite the kind of trials and errors and joys and heartbreaks of this industry… my instincts led me in the right direction because I get to be here now.” She calls North of North “the jewel of my career.”

No one person can speak for a whole community

One of the most honest parts of the conversation is about representation. Early in her career, Anna felt she had to speak for all Inuit, and that pressure came from other people and from herself. Having a platform does come with responsibility, she says, but asking one person to represent a whole, diverse community isn’t fair, especially when that person is a young woman. 

“Now that I’m 25… I don’t look at 18 and 19 year old Indigenous kids and go like, you have to be a spokesperson for your community… That’s a kid.”

Today she carries her community with her while staying aware of her own privileges. She’s careful not to put herself at the center of stories that aren’t hers.

Siaja and Anna

Anna’s character, Siaja, is impulsive, clumsy and endlessly optimistic. Anna describes herself as a perfectionist who’s afraid of failing. Playing Siaja gave her a safe place to take risks and be embarrassing, and along the way she found that she actually likes being more optimistic and outgoing. “Being a little bit impulsive is the better choice for me,” she says, “where I can kind of overthink myself into stagnation.”

Filming at –50°C

Season 2 was shot in brutal cold. “Minus 30 was a warm day for us,” Anna says. Many days were colder than –45°C. The team spent two full days filming on the sea ice of Frobisher Bay on the Arctic Ocean, 20 minutes out by skidoo and qamutiik (a wooden sled pulled behind a snow machine), with temperatures below –50°C. 

She gives the credit to the crew. Many of them were learning Arctic survival on the job, and some got frostbite. “It’d be a massive disservice to the dedication and the commitment of our crew to not recognize just how hard this show is to make.”

Seen as Siaja at home

Filming Season 1 in her hometown, in front of people she grew up with, was embarrassing at first. Since the show came out, many locals see her as Siaja before they see Anna, and she finds that freeing. The production depends on community support from Iqaluit and Pangnirtung, so the show has become a shared celebration.

Stories that are allowed to just be stories

Anna recalls a conversation with Tantoo Cardinal about the decades-long fight for authentic Indigenous storytelling. She notes that mainstream audiences often valued Indigenous stories only when they taught something about trauma or colonialism:

“If people can’t relate to our humanity, well, at least they can feel bad for us and feel like they’re learning something.”

She sees North of North as a step toward stories about joy, love and community that audiences find just as universal as any other story. They don’t have to “have the prerequisites of educating and trauma.” 

What matriarchy means to her

For Anna, matriarchy isn’t an abstract idea. It’s how she grew up. In Inuit communities, women in leadership and decision-making roles are normal. “I am a strong Inuit woman because I was raised by strong Inuit women in a community full of strong Inuit women.” That includes her mentors and castmates Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, who she calls “my Beyoncé.” 

Advice for young Inuk women

• Take risks and be bold. Trust your gut.
• Choose yourself. “If you want to choose your community, you’re part of your community. You also have to choose yourself.” You can’t pour from an empty cup.
• Know your safety net. Lateral violence will probably happen at some point, but “there are so many women around you that want you to succeed… that want to pass the torch to you.”

---

Watch and follow

• Watch Season 2 of North of North on CBC, APTN and Netflix.
• Follow Anna on Instagram: @anna.r.b.lambe 

This episode was made in collaboration with the Indigenous Screen Office and YouTube Canada.