Star Wars film newly dubbed in Ojibway will give 'boost' to the language, its Darth Vader actor says

The original Star Wars film, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, has been translated into over 50 languages.

Norwegian, French, Icelandic, Navajo — and now Ojibway.

Dennis Daminos Chartrand, a member of Pine Creek First Nation who voices Darth Vader in the film and helped translate the original text, says he hopes having his language incorporated into the "iconic" film will promote it — not just within his community, but beyond.

Chartrand spoke with Day 6 host Brent Bambury ahead of the film's release on the national Indigenous broadcast channel APTN next month, and just days after the death of original Darth Vader actor James Earl Jones. He spoke about his hopes for the film, challenges translating the story into Ojibway and why Star Wars resonates so much with him as an Indigenous person. Here is part of their conversation.

[Star Wars: A New Hope] came out 47 years ago. Now, for the second time, it's being dubbed into an Indigenous language. What is it about this movie that continues to resonate with you as an Ojibway person?

For me, having watched right from the beginning, there seems to be a similarity to … how our life as Indigenous people is in Canada or in North America.

You know, having a colonial people kind of leading, I'd associate [that] as the Empire. And so we become like the rebel cause and there's always hope, you know, that something great can happen or that we can continue to live, like our language has.

At one time, we were told not to speak our language. So our hope was to keep preserving and maintaining not only our language, but just our culture, our way of life. 

WATCH | Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild talks with the Ojibway cast of Star Wars

And how does translating this film into Ojibway further that struggle for survival of the Ojibway language?

Having our language being heard on such an iconic movie at this level is kind of, you know, gives us a boost in our desire to maintain, revitalize our language.

And that it can reach out to more people, and not just Ojibway speaking people, but all people…. We have a chance to share through our language a little bit of our culture, a little bit of how we say things through this movie.

For me, I experienced working together with non-Indigenous [people], working together with industry, which is kind of beyond any dream I've ever had of sharing my language. And so it was quite an awesome feeling to see the end result of the movie and the voice work that was done and knowing that this is going to be preserved for forever … it's an amazing feeling.

What are the characteristics of the Ojibway language that you needed to consider as you tried to fit it into this existing story, this existing text?