Herschel (Development)

6 x 22 minutes

HERSCHEL is an investigative documentary series that revisits a largely forgotten 1922 murder trial on Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk), off Yukon’s Arctic coast. Two Inuit men, Tatamigana and Alikomiak, were tried and executed by the Canadian state. Though the case has faded from memory, its consequences continue to shape Canada’s identity as an Arctic nation.

Using the trial as a narrative engine, the series expands outward to examine how colonial law, myth-making, and geopolitical ambition converged in the North. Through archival research, contemporary forensic analysis, cinematic recreations, and Inuvialuit perspectives, HERSCHEL interrogates whose stories were preserved, whose were silenced, and how sovereignty was asserted through occupation and law.

As climate change accelerates Arctic ice melt and global powers turn their attention to shipping routes, resources, and security, the questions raised by this century-old case feel urgently contemporary. Each episode layers historical investigation with thematic inquiry—exploring Inuit legal traditions, colonial expansion, environmental transformation, and the evolving politics of Arctic governance.

Rather than delivering a single verdict, HERSCHEL embraces ambiguity. It positions the land itself as witness to shifting borders and enduring memory, asking not only what happened in 1922, but how nations construct justice—and how history continues to shape the future of a rapidly changing North.