by ERIN MACLEOD

When Cynthia Taylor got an interview for a position producing and directing Maamuitaau, CBC North’s half-hour current affairs show broadcast in Cree, but also subtitled in English, she was pleased. When the 30-year-old from Waskaganish landed the job, becoming one of the youngest producers in the show’s 24-season history, she was ecstatic.

The word Maamuitaau means “Let’s get together,” and that’s the goal of the show. “It’s about the Cree, for the Cree,” explains Taylor. “I applied for this job because it was about our culture. Because I’m half, I wanted to know more. The main audience is the nine James Bay Cree communities, with the intention that other people can watch it and learn.”

Taylor is committed to raising awareness. “This season, we’re trying to break some barriers—to do things that Crees don’t necessarily talk about. We want to create a dialogue. For instance, we did a very personal piece about a young man’s gambling addiction.” There are segments dedicated to traditional practices, but Taylor and the Maamuitaau team—“It’s not a one-person job!”—also present a wide range of Cree experience.

“The main reason I’m doing this is to preserve the culture,” she says. “It’s not just the past, but documenting progress and the future, how we’re evolving and adapting as a people into the modern world. We’re very much in a period of transition—which was really brought on by issues such as Hydro-Québec projects.”

Now, Maamuitaau is available online, so one need not be in James Bay to watch it. And Taylor hopes more people will. “The typical stereotypes of native people are rampant and very few people know about the culture, the details, and just generalize it into dreamcatchers and teepees. I didn’t even see a dreamcatcher until I moved to Montreal!”

And Taylor is still ecstatic. “I’m on shoots, I’m in the editing suites with my editor, I’m editing scripts, I’m working crazy hours and I’ll stop for a second and think. It dawns on me that I’m doing what I want to do and it’s a fantastic feeling.”