Actress Maika Harper shines in “Mohawk Girls”

Iqaluit-born Maika Harper is now studying acting in Toronto. “It’s tough,” she says, “but I love it.” (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

Maika Harper plays the free-spirited character Anna in the new Canadian television series pilot, “Mohawk Girls.” (PHOTO COURTESY REZOLUTION PICTURES)

TORONTO – “I don’t recommend it,” said Inuk actress Maika Harper.

The 24-year-old Iqaluit-raised theatre student is talking about her vocation as she sips tea at a café in her downtown Toronto neighbourhood.

“It’s tough, you’ve got to love it or leave it,” Harper sad. “But I love it, I wouldn’t do anything else.”

It’s not hard to see why – Harper recently landed a role in a new Canadian television series called “Mohawk Girls,” a dramatic comedy that follows the lives of four young women on the Kahnawake reserve outside of Montreal.

Written, directed and produced by Gemini-award winning filmmaker Tracey Deer, who also owns the Eastern Door newspaper with her husband, journalist Steve Bonspiel, the pilot episode is now in development with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

Harper plays the naïve and upbeat character of Anna, who’s just moved onto the reserve and doesn’t understand the “rules.”

“I found I was a lot like Anna,” Harper said. “I’m still kind of finding myself.”

“But it’s a really funny show, and a great cast.”

It’s also the first time Harper has been cast in the role of an aboriginal woman – up until now, she’s always been Asian, Hawaiian or even Mexican.

Harper said she appreciated the chance to learn about the Mohawk culture, one she found shared a lot in common with her own.

“It was a lot like Iqaluit, really welcoming and lots of food and celebration,” she said. “Everyone knows everyone’s business and everyone has tea and bannock.”

Harper left Iqaluit at 14, when she went to high school at Albert College in Belleville, Ont. The school offered an extensive arts program and soon Harper found herself playing the role of Miss Adelaide in the school production of Guys & Dolls.

“It wasn’t until the lights came on that I realized I was in love,” she said.

Harper later started a theatre program at the University of Windsor, where she studied classical theatre, voice and stage work and was generally “whipped into shape.”

“I was totally surprised at the amount of work that goes into acting,” she laughed. “I really thought you just put out your cigarette and “action.”

Like many up and coming actors, Harper works part-time in the service industry to help supplement her income. And she teaches electric violin lessons and works with at-risk youth at a local native centre.

Today she continues to study acting for film and television at the Professional Actor’s Lab in Toronto.

Harper is also gradually working on a screenplay that focuses on being an aboriginal newcomer to the big city.

Her story is still unique, after all.

“There aren’t too many Inuit actors out there,” Harper said. “It’s kind of uncharted territory.”

She hopes other Nunavummiut youth can have better access to the arts than she did.

“I didn’t really get a chance to tap into [theatre or acting] up north and I wish I had,” she said. “There needs to be something out there for [Inuit] youth.”

Harper says she would love to work in Nunavut one day, as an actress, but also to help create a summer arts camp in Iqaluit.

Her future plans include a spot on stage in Stratford, Ont. – which hosts the largest Shakespearean theatre festival in North America.

“That’s my dream. It’s live, in your face and it’s a dying art form in North America,” she said. “Realistically, I could be waiting on tables for the rest of my life, but I don’t want to be anything else.”