MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
"Star Wars" fans in Minnesota and Wisconsin got to experience a whole new version of the 1977 movie, "A New Hope," last week. This take of the classic film was dubbed into the language of one of the largest Indigenous groups in the U.S. and Canada. Minnesota Public Radio's Melissa Olson has more.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "MAIN TITLE (FROM 'STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE')")
MELISSA OLSON, BYLINE: Fans who came out to see the film got a chance to hear a language spoken in a galaxy far, far away for the first time. This version of the 1977 classic, "Star Wars: A New Hope," has been dubbed in the Ojibwe language. It's spoken by one of the largest Indigenous nations in the U.S. and Canada. One of the lead voice actors in the film just happened to be attending a showing in a Twin Cities suburb. He's both a fan of the movie and a student of the language.
AJUAWAK KAPASHESIT: My name is Ajuawak Kapashesit, and I play Han Solo in this edition of "Star Wars: A New Hope."
OLSON: "Star Wars" fans will likely remember scenes like the one where a braggadocious Han Solo negotiates with Obi-Wan Kenobi over the cost to catch a ride on the Millennium Falcon. Kapashesit acts alongside Dustin Morrow, who voices Obi-Wan Kenobi.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE")
KAPASHESIT: (As Han Solo, speaking Ojibwe).
DUSTIN MORROW: (As Obi-Wan Kenobi, speaking Ojibwe).
OLSON: To dub Star Wars in Ojibwe, creators of the film had to find words for things like lightsabers and starships.
KAPASHESIT: Not your everyday conversation in Ojibwe. And I think that's a really beautiful thing about language - is that language needs to evolve. Language needs new vocabulary in order to be used regularly for all the new things that we're developing all the time.
OLSON: Shoshana Skippingday saw the movie for the first time some nearly 50 years ago, when she was just 5 years old. She saw the Ojibwe language dub-over with a friend.
SHOSHANA SKIPPINGDAY: It was amazing. I loved it. The whole language - it was awesome. Whoever thought of this - it was an amazing idea.
OLSON: The film is a collaboration between Lucasfilm, the University of Manitoba and the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council, a group of Manitoba First Nations. Much of the idea for the film comes from wanting to give more people an opportunity to hear the language, in hopes it will encourage them to learn it. According to Ojibwe language experts, fewer than a thousand people still speak Ojibwe fluently in Minnesota. Tayah Reyes came to see the film with a group of four friends. Reyes is Ojibwe. She's a huge "Star Wars" fan and a student of the language.
TAYAH REYES: "Star Wars" is just one of the biggest movies ever in cinematography. And it was just healing to hear our language in something that big, too.
OLSON: Kapashesit says getting an opportunity to hear the language outside the classroom or outside of ceremonies is rare.
KAPASHESIT: So getting that in something like this is really beautiful. So I hope that more people get opportunities to do this.
OLSON: And there's at least one Ojibwe phrase that moviegoers can take with them - may the force be with you.
KAPASHESIT: (Speaking Ojibwe).
OLSON: For NPR News, I'm Melissa Olson in Oakdale, Minn.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "THE FORCE THEME (FROM 'STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE')") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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