‘North of North’ star Anna Lambe believes (most) people can change

For Inuk actor Anna Lambe, star of the hit Netflix comedy North of North, the north-est north is home. For real — she was born in Iqaluit but her family is from Grise Fiord, the most northern community in Canada.

In North of North, Lambe’s character, Siaja, is starting a new path with dreams of reinventing herself after exiting her marriage. It’s another badass character on a resume that’s full of them: the 24-year-old Lambe is known for True Detective: Night Country, The Grizzlies and Trickster, playing an assortment of advocates, rebels and people who fiercely protect their loved ones.

When she took The Narwhal’s Moose Questionnaire, which digs into our connection to the natural world, it became clear she’s pretty badass herself. Unlike some, Lambe didn’t shy away from our kiss, marry, kill question about animals — and she actually picked an animal to hunt for food, rather than assume we meant killing for kicks, like the rest of you freaks. 

Lambe is also not afraid to call things how she sees them — like that oil companies are responsible for mitigating climate change and people who call hunting and wearing furs “savage” are wrong. 

“I feel like a lot of people would benefit from understanding where their food comes from a little bit better, and understanding where our food comes from and how things have been done for time immemorial,” she said. “But that also requires a lot of empathy and open-heartedness and open minds.” 

North of North premiered on CBC and APTN earlier this year and debuts on Netflix on April 10. The show may be set in the ice but it’s heartwarming — much like our conversation with Lambe.

“You will laugh, you will cry,” she said. “I don’t, like, hope people cry, but it would be really nice and validating if they did.”

This interview is edited and condensed for clarity — all opinions are the subject’s own.

What’s the most awe inspiring natural site that you’ve witnessed between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 49th parallel and Hudson Bay, basically what we call today Canada?

Maybe I’m a little bit biased, but I’m always in awe of Iqaluit. I love the hills and the mountains on the other side of the bay. My family loves going boating in the summer, being so far away from town, seeing the seals and the birds, sometimes seeing whales or walruses, seeing caribou in the mountains. 

It’s something that always reminds me of how small I am and how insignificant I am. Some people might find that a little bit scary, but I find it really relieving and it is a good perspective shifter.

What’s the most awe inspiring natural site that you’ve witnessed outside of Canada?

I love Greenland. I think I’ve only been to Nuuk, but Nuuk is absolutely beautiful. Or maybe Iceland, their waterfalls are incredible. I have a reverence and a fear of water. It’s so powerful and incredible. It’s beautiful to look at, but it can take you out pretty quickly. 

Think of three iconic animals, or animals that are considered iconic within Canada. Choose one each to kiss, marry and kill.

I will say kill a seal, a ring seal. Very tasty, very delicious. Sealskin is very beautiful. Maybe marry a polar bear. I feel like they keep me safe. It’s a nice person to have on your side. And kiss a beluga whale. Just so cute, the cute little heads.

Name a person or group doing something meaningful for the environment that you think everyone should know about.

Sheila Watts-Cloutier, who wrote The Right to be Cold. I think she’s an incredible environmentalist and somebody who in particular focuses on climate change in the North and how that impacts us. She is a voice for the North that is really powerful. I’m grateful to be represented by someone like Sheila.

Can you name one person that could significantly help mitigate the climate crisis, if they really wanted to?

I would love for the head of an oil company to realize that what they’re doing is causing a lot of damage and be a little bit more conscious of how their work impacts everybody else. There’s obviously demand for it and so much of our life is powered by it. But I wish that there was a bit more insight into the future and thinking about the generations that are going to come after you and are going to have to deal with the impacts of the decisions that you made. 

Outdoor cats, yes or no?

Outdoor cats in cities and in urban centres, I’m going to say no, because of the harm that they cause to the local wildlife and stuff. Farmlands and things like that, sure.

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Can you tell us about a time that you changed your mind about something, environmental or otherwise? 

In terms of advocacy and understanding community, I think when I was younger, maybe I was a bit feistier — and there’s an importance in that and it’s valuable and necessary to have that. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized we need to have grace for one another within advocacy and within activist communities. 

We need to make space for changing minds and we can’t define people by how they felt five years ago or 10 years ago. If we really want to have communities and solidarity, then we need to be open to people growing and changing. 

So not necessarily a change of mind, but through time, a growth in my understanding of certain things and a change to who I am now. The more you get to know, the more you realize how much you don’t know. Being able to hold space for growing and recognizing that it really takes a community, it takes a team, to incite change, that is an important way to move through life.

Can you think of a time that you tried to change someone’s mind?

As an Inuk, there’s a constant battle with people who think that we shouldn’t use furs, that we shouldn’t hunt animals, that what we’re doing is barbaric and that we should ‘come up with the times.’ If we can’t afford the groceries that are priced so horribly within our communities, then we should just leave. Because hunting is savage.

Through time, I have held less space for these kinds of people. I will educate people, but when people are so set on not recognizing my humanity or my people’s humanity or our right to a dignified life, our right to our culture, our right to keep ourselves alive — if you’re not willing to hear us out on that, then I’m not willing to hear you out on on why I shouldn’t have fur on my parka when it’s minus 50 C. 

So many people in urban centres are so far removed from how the actual process of getting meat happens. They’re so far removed from animals that they don’t understand that our hunting is quite fair, the animals have a good chance to get away. They have a quality of life living on the land. They’re not corralled on farms or anything like that.

I spent a lot of time trying to change minds about that, talking about the importance of subsistence hunting and why it’s necessary within our communities and why it is sustainable and an important part of our economy. But if you’re not going to see me as a human deserving of a good life, that we are also people, we just live a little bit differently — if you’re not willing to understand that, then you know what? Whatever.

Yes, you have to choose: Rocky Mountains or Great Lakes? 

Rocky Mountains. I love mountains. Beautiful.

Researchers at Yale University, the France-based Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and other institutions have found women tend to be more concerned about climate change than men. Why do you think that is? 

That is really interesting. Maybe part of it is women do tend to have a bit more empathy and are a bit more conscious of their peers. 

In my community, they’re the first people to tend to community. The ways that climate change is impacting us, whether it be sourcing food or being out on the land or having access to things — in Nunavut, we’re really struggling with the permafrost melting, which is damaging a lot of our infrastructure. A lot of the stress of dealing with those things really falls on to women. 

Maybe that’s why they’re the first to advocate for climate action.

What’s the farthest north you’ve ever been, and what did you do there?

My family is actually from Grise Fiord, Nvt., which is the most northern community in Canada.  

What is one way that you interact with the natural world on a daily basis? 

Generally, I’m quite conscious of being a small thing in a big world. Even when you’re in a bit of a concrete jungle like Toronto, it once was land, it wasn’t always sidewalks and buildings. I love urban centres with green spaces. I think it’s so important. It’s just kind of being mindful of the air that you breathe, the wind that goes through your hair, the wind that chills you to the bone. All important things that you need to be recognizing and for me, grateful for. 

You can’t not be conscious of the natural world around you when you are constantly feeling the impacts of climate change. There’s always been freak weather incidents, but why are they occurring at such an increased level? Whether it be extreme cold or extreme heat or floods, I’m generally very conscious of like, ‘huh, this doesn’t feel right,’ and it’s probably because it isn’t.

If you could ask one person, alive or dead, for their thoughts on climate change, who would it be?

I would love to ask my great grandma, who I’m named after, what things were like when she was growing up, and how things have changed. 

Smoked salmon or maple syrup?

Can we get candied smoked salmon? I love the sweet ends of both worlds.

Who in your life has had the greatest impact on your relationship to nature?

My parents, my mom and my dad. They’re the ones who get us out boating, who get us out hunting. Growing up in Iqaluit, there was no degree of separation from ‘wilderness,’ because wilderness is 100 metres behind my house. It wasn’t something that was taught, it was just something that was. I feel very grateful to have been raised that way, always conscious of my surroundings and that nature is not a ‘thing.’ You’re constantly part of it, and you have to recognize your role in it.

Would you rather be invited to visit David and Victoria Beckham at their Muskoka, Ont., cottage, or Harry and Meghan Sussex at their B.C. oceanic escape?

I’m gonna go to the Beckhams’ cottage. I think Muskoka is always a fun time. A lot of lake swimming. 

Camping, yes or no?

Absolutely yes, absolutely yes.