The team behind the Indigenous horror web series Shadow of the Rougarou has launched a campaign to try to get Amazon-owned film and TV database IMDb to recognize Michif, the language of the Métis, as an official language on its website.

Director Jordan Waunch and producers Sean Ronan and James Kingstone have posted a poll in the IMDb community forums section and are seeking upvotes on it in order to validate their proposal. A representative for the film tells Playback Daily that IMDb told the team to create the poll as a way to push for the language to be recognized but hasn’t said how many votes are needed.

A news release says the team wants IMDb to acknowledge Michif in the “languages” section of its site so Shadow of the Rougarou, which has some dialogue in that language, can have an accurate listing. They’re also launching the poll in honour of National Indigenous History Month.

Currently, Shadow of the Rougarou is listed on IMDb as having dialogue in English, Cree and French, even though it features three Indigenous languages: Michif (Northern dialect), Cree (Plains and Woodland dialect), and Chinook Wawa (also known as Chinook Jargon).

The six-part Shadow of the Rougarou is produced by Vancouver-based Hammer & Tong and is available on streaming service APTN lumi, where it was the most-watched show in May, according to the release. The show was developed with the support of the Indigenous Screen Office’s Project Mentorship Fund and Creative BC’s Project Development Fund. Production financing was provided by the Bell Fund.

The Indigenous dark Western series is based on a story by Vancouver-based Waunch, who is Métis, and explores the Métis legend of the Rougarou, a werewolf-like beast that has inspired regional stories with different spellings and interpretations across Turtle Island.

Inspired by traditional Métis mythology, the limited series focuses on sâkowêw, a Métis-Cree fur trapper who faces a dark past as she journeys back home to rally recruits for the 1885 North-West Resistance.

The cast includes Morgan Holmstrom (Outlander), Cody Kearsley (Riverdale), Theodore Starr (Sisters of Sorrow), Georgina Lightning (Tribal) and newcomer Isabel Deroy-Olson.