Inuk singer Elisapie explores personal story in new documentary Hudson Bay(bies)

While the Hudson's Bay Company is practically synonymous with the history of Canada, one of its lesser-known details may be the story of the children that came from the relations between the company's employees and Indigenous women in the North. 

Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie Isaac is one of those children. In a new documentary called Hudson Bay(bies), she explores this personal history with co-producer Sophie Proulx-Lachance. The pair spoke with Radio-Canada about the film. 

"One day I got a call from the Bay, which was looking to feature Indigenous people in one of their campaigns," Isaac said.

"I was intrigued because I love everything about fashion, but afterwards I felt uncomfortable and I started wondering whether I was that 'token', and was actually helping a company that had played such a big role in [Canada's] colonization." 

She added that she'd been wanting to tell the story of the Hudson Bay Boys, like her father, for a long time. That call from the Bay, she said, "awakened something in me… I told myself that it was time, I had to do it." 

She realized that she needed a partner to keep the story in perspective, so she turned to Proulx-Lachance, with whom she'd previously produced another documentary called Facing the Music. 

"It was important for me to have someone that was capable of making hard decisions when needed," Isaac said. "I know the North and a lot of its people, so that's not always easy for me."

Isaac has previously told CBC that she grew up in Salluit, in Nunavik, with adoptive parents. Her biological father, George Pinkston, spent a few years working for the Hudson's Bay Company in Nunavik, but ultimately returned to his hometown in Newfoundland. Still, he maintained a distant relationship with his daughter. She'd even visited Newfoundland to meet her father's side of the family. 

However, that's not the case for many children — far from it. 

The documentary also follows Johnny Smiler Irqumia, an Inuk man searching for his biological father.  

"It's really nice seeing someone say, 'I need to know', and talk openly about these things," Isaac said.

Irqumia's story also stood out to Proulx-Lachance. 

"There were lots of people that wanted to talk, but to have the guts to do it in front of a camera … not everyone was willing to go that far," she said. "Johnny had never really talked about it. He opened up to us."

The documentary contrasts Isaac's positive relationship with her father and Irqumia's search with the story of former Senator Charlie Watt, whose father and grandfather both worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. It shows Watt has made peace with not having a relationship with his biological father.