Why We’re Building Differently at Indian & Cowboy
From near-misses to a new model: why Indian & Cowboy’s future won’t depend on one “yes.”
Late in the fall of 2021, I signed a First Look Deal with eOne (now Lionsgate Canada). They landed the first right of refusal on my unscripted and scripted works. The offer came out of nowhere, and I was thrilled to have the chance to build alongside industry leaders with a global track record.
I was in the deal while making the Thunder Bay docuseries for Bell Media (CRAVE). It was a grind — being that deep in an investigative series while also developing new work. We tried a few big swings: a powwow food travel show, a doc series on the repatriation of Indigenous cultural materials, and a feature about Christianity and Indian Country told through Eliot’s Indian Bible, the first Bible published in British North America.
Eliot’s Indian Bible at Harvard’s Haughton Library
In the end, the deal fizzled. No development order came through, and the second year of the deal disappeared during Hasbro’s restructuring of eOne. The deal lapsed in 2023. We parted ways on good terms, promising to keep in touch and work together again someday.
New opportunites, same story
After Thunder Bay picked up a few Canadian Screen Awards and Northern Ontario Music & Film Awards in 2024, I started looking for another First Look Deal. Something that would give my family and me some stability while I figured out my next moves.
By fall 2024, I had one — this time with Attraction. For the past year I’ve poured myself into what I believe are my best unscripted projects yet. I wrote, developed, recorded, filmed, edited, and packaged work I’m genuinely proud of.
We went deep. We got to the greenlight stage. Twice. A commissioner even told me (off the record) that someone higher up might’ve overturned the decision. I won’t speculate. I’ll just say I hope that’s true — that we actually did make it that far.
But in the end, it’s work no one will ever see. Projects that didn’t get greenlit. Another First Look Deal that lapsed, another split that ended amicably.
I’m grateful to the companies that believed in me and the stories I wanted to tell. But the hardest part is going back to the communities, sources, and people who trusted me with their stories and saying: “It didn’t happen.” That’s devastating.
How Do We Survive in 2025?
Indian & Cowboy has a solid plan to get us to sustainability.
our answer is our integrated studio model
Here’s the truth: it doesn’t matter how strong the story is, how good the access is, or how much impact it could have — at the end of the day, commissioners only have so much pie to go around. You can chase that pie. But if you don’t get a slice, your company can’t crumble because of it.
As an independent Indigenous media company, we can’t live off broadcast envelopes and shrinking development deals. We have to find ways to partner inside the industry we love, but also stay committed to carving out our own spaces for our stories.
That’s why Indian & Cowboy Creative Media Inc. is building something different. An integrated studio model that gives us independence and sustainability. A way to keep moving, even when the pie doesn’t come our way.
We’re building something exciting.
We’re publishing online and building a membership community via an email newsletter, YouTube, and podcast model.
We’re working in partnership with communities, institutions, brands, and companies looking to share their stories with the world.
We’re collaborating with Indigenous journalists and creatives of all experience levels.
We’re taking our rightful place in the broadcast and streaming world.
We’re hosting popups and live events to lead and expand the conversation between Indian Country and the mainstream in Canada and beyond.
And we’re working our way into the classrooms and other places of learning and sharing with nuanced and complex Indigenous stories that flip the script on everything the world thought they knew about us.
Stories our way.
Stay tuned.
