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"Star Wars" fans in Minnesota and Wisconsin yesterday got to experience a whole new version of the 1977 movie "A New Hope." It's a version 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.
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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.
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KAPASHESIT: (As Han Solo, 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: So how did fans react to hearing "Star Wars" dubbed in Ojibwe? Shoshana Skippingday saw the movie for the first time some nearly 50 years ago, when she was just five 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. I - whoever thought of this, that 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 1,000 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.
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KAPASHESIT: (As Han Solo, speaking Ojibwe).
OLSON: For NPR News, I'm Melissa Olson in Oakdale, Minn.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE CRIMSON BIG MOVIE ORCHESTRA'S "BINARY SUNSET") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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