Ahtahkakoop member starts Okanagan’s first Indigenous animation studio

“I’m very goal oriented, and this is something I’ve had planned for since day one. I do public speaking every now and then, and in my goals part of my presentation, having a studio is right there, and I started looking at the landscape of what the animation industry is, and I was finding out that there are a lot of Indigenous productions going into production that are looking for Indigenous representation.”

Knife’s love of animation and cartoons developed during a childhood spent moving between foster homes in Saskatchewan and B.C. Watching cartoons offered an escape from what could be a chaotic environment.

“In between the times of being in B.C., I was constantly going in and out of foster care system. So to get out of that hectic environment that I was in mentally, I would watch cartoons, and some of the best cartoons would be at 5:30 in the morning. That would be Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, all these cool shows, but specifically, there was an episode of Sailor Moon where a character was an animator.”

That episode of Sailor Moon helped set Knife on his career path. At 16, he bought a bus ticket, left for the Okanagan and began pursuing animation.

The move away from Ahtahkakoop wasn’t easy.

During the first year of his two-year course at the College for Arts and Technology in Kelowna, his younger sister was killed by an impaired driver. The following year, he lost his older brother.

“My resolve was absolute to graduate and get into this career path. I wanted more out of my life. I demanded more out of my life,” Knife said in a 2020 documentary.

Knife has said he is grateful for the difficult experiences he’s had because they made the good experiences more meaningful. Growing up, he also found comfort in the family dynamics he saw in cartoons.

Now, he gets to share that love of animation with his own children, who are nine and five. His oldest, in particular, takes pride in watching “one of daddy’s shows.”

“Whenever she’s in school or class, she always brings up the fact that I worked on Pete the Cat. Pete the Cat is just one of the books that are in grade one and two that they’re teaching the kids because it has some very good lessons in it, but I worked on the TV show for a whole year and she saw all that work. When she sees me working on it, it’s not a big deal. But then when she sees it on TV, she’s like, ‘hey, you worked on that’.”

Inspiring his children and others in the Indigenous community has become a driving force in Knife’s career and is a major reason behind Môhkomân Creative.

“When I told my oldest, ‘hey, we’re starting a studio, the first Indigenous owned 2D animation studio in the Okanagan’, her eyes just lit up. That wonder, it’s exactly what I want to get out of the youth coming up right now. If I can do it at this point in my life, you can do it. You can dream bigger than your surroundings, and that’s really what it’s all about.”

To get Môhkomân Creative off the ground, Knife applied for several grants through May and June while continuing to work on his next project.

Last month, he learned the Canada Council for the Arts had approved a $100,000 grant for the studio’s first project.

The short film, Myself and I, tells the story of Bear, a Cree man living on a reserve who is learning to deal with the trauma of his childhood.

“It’s basically about the main character who is named Bear coming to terms with his generational trauma and acknowledging his inner child. However, to get to that point, whenever he’s triggered by something in his environment, he turns into a puppet and this puppet is supposed to represent his inner child and that fight or flight response that comes from being triggered.”

Myself and I is currently in production and is expected to be released in spring 2027.

Môhkomân Creative is still small, with a team consisting of Knife and his mentor, but Knife said he has received strong support from industry peers and the Indigenous community as he gets the studio off the ground.

He hopes Môhkomân Creative will not only create more space for Indigenous storytelling, but also encourage more Indigenous people to pursue careers in animation.

“For a long time, I’ve been in studio spaces where it’s just been me, that one Indigenous person in this space, and to be that Indigenous representative that has the answer to these questions. It’s been a little disassociative. It makes me feel uncomfortable at times, but I’m there for a reason. That reason was to become a great animator and to do great things inside this industry, and now to be able to potentially offer that to someone coming into the industry and give them that foot in the door is really what it’s all about, business representation.”

You can find more about Môhkomân Creative on their website by clicking here, and more about Harley Knife and his past projects on his personal website here.

—

nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Ahtahkakoop member starts Okanagan’s first Indigenous animation studio

What's Trending