From left, Maeengan Linklater, his mother Pat Ningewance Nadeau and his son Aandeg Jedi (AJ) Muldrew all had a role in the Ojibwe dub of Star Wars: A New Hope (Anangong Miigaading).Supplied
As with the Skywalkers, the clan at the centre of the Star Wars movies, the production of an Ojibway-language dub of the film is a family story.
Pat Ningewance Nadeau was the lead translator of Star Wars: A New Hope (Anangong Miigaading), set to premiere Aug. 8, a partnership between Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council, the University of Manitoba, Disney/Lucasfilm, and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. Nadeau’s son Maeengan Linklater was the project lead. And the role of Luke Skywalker is played by Linklater’s son Aandeg Jedi (AJ) Muldrew.
If it’s not obvious from the middle name Linklater gave his son, who shows a driver’s licence to prove it, he is a bit of a Star Wars fan.
Although only 3 when the first movie came out, Linklater says he saw it 20 times in the theatre. Star Wars toys were ubiquitous in his home. Growing up between Thunder Bay and Lac Seul First Nation Island, with no running water or electricity, he and his friends played outdoors, pretending they were on one of the movie’s fantasy planets. In the summer, the forest was Endor. In the winter, it was Hoth.
“Out in the bush on Lac Seul, our backyard was this massive island. Well, it seemed massive to us,” he said. “And we would go out exploring, pretend we were hunting stormtroopers. Having the opportunity to work on a movie that has played such a substantial influence in my life, it’s a dream come true.”
It’s not a stretch to see Star Wars through an Indigenous lens. In recent years, the film’s creator George Lucas has grown increasingly comfortable telling people that his story of a small rebellion against a galactic empire drew inspiration from the under-equipped Viet Cong succeeding against the overwhelming military force of the United States. With the film, Linklater finds an easy association to an Indigenous experience in Canada.
Muldrew adds a couple of layers to the comparison: Luke living with his family in the country and being subjected to police searches.
“For Indigenous people, sitting across the table from decision-makers,” he says, “you’re often out-educated, out-resourced.”
Linklater does not speak Ojibway, for which he feels “a profound sense of loss and sadness.”
Muldrew himself began learning Ojibwaywhen he was 10 years old, starting with language camps. A friend of his had grandparents dub SpongeBob SquarePants cartoons into Ojibway in order to practise hearing it. Muldrew now teaches in the linguistics department of the University of Winnipeg.
“I love it that my grandson can talk to me in our language,” says Nadeau, assistant professor in the department of Indigenous studies, where she teaches immersive Ojibway classes. She had tried, unsuccessfully, to teach Ojibway to Linklater. But she encountered what she calls “a block.”
“The block we have here,” says Nadeau, pointing to her throat. “It manifests in people AJ’s age. University students come to my class, wanting to learn the language. Because it means claiming their identity as Anishinaabe people. A way of belonging to that community.”
Over more than 25 years of teaching, Nadeau has observed historic trauma exhibited through an inability to absorb language.
“White students, or African or Asian, they’re picking up the language very easily. And the Ojibway students, the words get stuck,” Nadeau says, pointing to her throat again. “They can’t retain them. And they go back to their communities, and the older people speak the language still. But they give up hope because they can’t understand the language. So, they’re left out. That happened to Ming. When his grandmother was dying, they couldn’t talk to each other. All they could do was hold hands. It was very heartbreaking.”
That’s why this project, bringing to audiences the impact of hearing this well-known story in Ojibway, is so important to the family.
“Changing the language changes how you relate to the movie,” says Muldrew. The premiere will bring children and youth living in support housing to the 2,300-seat Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg. Linklater hopes they’ll see themselves on the screen.
For all of the thematic symmetry, translation is never a word-for-word game.
Moving from one language to another, it’s a challenge to make dialogue fit lip movements as much as possible. For example, the Ojibway word “Mamaandaawiziwin,” loosely translated as “spiritual power,” is used in place of “the force.” Replacing two syllables with six requires adjustment to the rest of the sentence so the audio doesn’t run past the on-screen speaking.
If the fidelity isn’t maintained, you end up with a product like the 1970s kung-fu flicks, exported to North America with the same six actors dubbing every movie, English dialogue comically continuing when the actor’s mouth has closed.
A so-bad-it’s-funny dub would kill the mood Linklater is hoping to inspire with the youth being brought to attend the premiere.
“If we can plant that seed and say, be proud of who you are, be proud of your community, your family, your language,” says Linklater. “If I was that age and saw Star Wars in Ojibway, maybe I would have learned my language.”