Ojibwe ‘Star Wars’ features Minnesota speakers

In a new version of the original 1977 “Star Wars: A New Hope” premiering this week in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t say, “May the Force be with you.”

Instead, the Jedi Master wishes Luke Skywalker off with “Gi-ga-miinigoz Mamaandaawiziwin,” the phrase’s Ojibwe (Anishinaabemowin) translation, as part of the blockbuster’s recent dub in one of North America’s most-spoken Indigenous languages.

The project was initiated in Canada, where Ojibwe is the second-most popular Indigenous language. Several Canadian tribal, university, media and government groups worked with Disney/Lucasfilm to bring the endangered language to a broader audience though one of Hollywood’s most popular films. (The film’s only other Indigenous-language version is its Navajo dub, released in 2013.)

Minnesota is home to the United States’ largest population of Ojibwe speakers and several of the film’s voice actors have local ties, including Anton Treuer, an author and professor of Ojibwe language at Bemidji State University, the voice of a stormtrooper and droid announcer, and Dustin Morrow, a University of Minnesota linguistics doctoral student who voiced Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Translating the “Star Wars” script was a complex process that involved creating Ojibwe terms for fictional elements such as “lightsaber,” “the Force” and “hyperdrive.” And since Ojibwe is a very descriptive language, some dialogue had to be stripped down to better fit the film actors’ lip movements.

Morrow, a member of Wisconsin’s Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, learned Ojibwe as a second language. Mass media is an important part of its revitalization, he said.

Before heading to the film’s premiere, he described how it felt to be involved in such a significant, almost galaxy-spanning, project.

“It’s been surreal,” Morrow said. “I never thought I would be voicing anything in Ojibwe, let alone an iconic role like Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

The film will be available on Disney+ and screened in select markets.