‘Star Wars’ Film Showcases Voices from Minnesota and Wisconsin Tribes

‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ is one of the most popular movies ever made, and it has been translated into more than 50 languages, but one was missing.

A new Ojibwe translation of the classic film premiered this week in Canada, and it features a lot of talented voices from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Ojibwe is the second-most popular Indigenous language in Canada, and the fourth most widely used in the United States. Star Wars only has one other Indigenous-language version, a Navajo dub, which was released in 2013.

Several media outlets are highlighting some of the amazing talent used in the re-dubbing of the first Star Wars film. WDIO-TV talked to Niigaanii-Animikii Inini, who is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and works for the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Inini, also known as Kalvin Hartwig, is the voice of “Red Leader” in the new version of the film. He said he went to Winnipeg to record his part after doing two auditions for the role.

The Star Tribune reported that University of Minnesota linguistics student Dustin Morrow plays the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, while a Bemidji State University professor of Ojibwe language, Anton Treuer, does the voices of a Stormtrooper and a droid.

CTV interviewed Aandeg Muldrew, who played Luke Skywalker in the new dub. He was also one of the translators that worked on the script. Muldrew mentioned the challenges in creating Ojibwe terms for things like “Lightsaber,” “hyperdrive,” and “The Force.”

The Ojibwe language version of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ will be released in limited theaters and will be available on Disney+ in the future.

Source: WDIO-TV, The Star Tribune, CTV