'How I learned my language': Ojibway man dubbing cartoons teaching Northerners to do the same
CBC
Westin Sutherland is in Yellowknife this week to teach 100 people how they too can dub popular cartoons and movies with their own Indigenous languages.
Sutherland, an Ojibway man from Peguis First Nation in Manitoba, sees dubbing — the process of stripping out dialogue and sounds and replacing it with another language — as a tool to promote and preserve Indigenous languages.
He says that watching television is a great way to learn a language, but when he was learning to speak Anishinaabemowin in 2015, he couldn't find any popular media in the language.
"Doing this whole project, sitting with fluent speakers, listening to how they translate, listening to their voices, 24/7 editing them and putting them on to videos … I think that's pretty much how I learned my language."
In 2017, he started dubbing over popular cartoons like Sailor Moon and SpongeBob SquarePants alongside Elders and language experts. He's now in Yellowknife to teach language enthusiasts how they can do the same.
He spoke to an audience at the Explorer Hotel, this week, as well as people tuning in online from communities, and 60 participants of the Mentor Apprentice Program which pairs fluent speakers with language learners.
Sutherland is showing participants how to select cartoons, record dubbing, and edit it into a finished product, as well as providing guidance on voice acting to suit the characters in the dub.
"I like to make these cartoons more humorous when they're in Ojibwe," Sutherland said.
According to the NWT Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of Indigenous people aged 15 and older who speak an Indigenous language has declined from 55 per cent in 1989 to 33 per cent in 2019.
Angela James, the director of Indigenous language revitalization for the territory's education department, said there is a gap among 18 to 20 year olds in language learning, but initiatives like Sutherland's are "innovative" and "can appeal so strongly to young people."
She said that following his presentation, participants were eager to have Sutherland come to their communities to provide a workshops too.
"The language keepers were wanting to book him to come and visit their communities in order to reach the youth."
Sutherland has been dubbing to help learners of all ages, but also for fluent speakers like his grandmother, Sutherland wanted to create entertainment she could enjoy in the language.
"I wanted to choose characters that children and youth could recognize to inspire them to learn their language."
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A New Brunswick RCMP officer testifying at a drug trafficking trial this week was questioned by the defence about theft charges he himself faces in an unrelated case.
At precisely noon, the casket welders, sanders and paint sprayers are turned off and a quiet hum settles over the Magog Caskets factory floor in southeastern Quebec.
Edgar Spence keeps a folded bundle of receipts for meal expenses his family has had to cover out-of-pocket since they were forced out of their home community by wildfires in northern Manitoba.
A man accused in a series of north-central Edmonton arsons is guilty of starting fires that damaged or destroyed several homes in 2020 and 2021, a judge ruled Thursday.
Residents of Ward 8 in Hamilton are likely to be back at the polls once again after city councillors voted Wednesday to hold a byelection there to replace former councillor John-Paul Danko, who was recently elected as a member of parliament.
Work on Windsor's large Banwell Road interchange and corridor construction projects is currently on hold after Butler's gartersnakes were discovered.
Etched on a poster board the size of her body, Mary McPherson held up a pencil-drawn portrait of Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
One of the largest old elm trees in Toronto — possibly in all of southern Ontario — is on its last legs.
It's graduation week for many University of Guelph students, but it's a particularly special day for one 68-year-old whose walk across the convocation stage was 49 years in the making.
Scientists on Prince Edward Island have created a new warning system to help Maritime farmers avoid a costly disease called fusarium head blight, which can decrease grain yields while contaminating the crop with toxins.
An N.W.T. deputy minister says the territorial government is hoping to use federal housing money to clear derelict homes from communities.
WARNING: This article contains graphic details, references sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone impacted by it.