Native Lights is a weekly, half-hour radio program hosted by Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe members and siblings, Leah Lemm and Cole Premo. Native Lights is a space for people in Native communities around Mni Sota Mkoce — a.k.a. Minnesota — to tell their stories about finding their gifts and sharing them with the community.
On today’s show, we talk with Baabiitaw Boyd (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) who is is the Mille Lacs Band’s Deputy Commissioner on language revitalization initiatives. Her work includes the Anjibimaadizing program, which has developed a partnership with Rosetta Stone and published five Ojibwemowin books of stories collected from first speakers. Baabiitaw Boyd was also awarded a Bush Leadership Fellowship in 2017.
In our conversation, Baabiitaw shares her path of awakening to her purpose: helping to revitalize the Ojibwemowin language for the benefit of the larger community. We are inspired by Baabiitaw’s motivation and enthusiasm for learning her ancestral language and the wisdom it carries. We appreciate Baabiitaw’s deep passion for helping others learn and speak Ojibwemowin, and her efforts to change both habits and systems, to better support and sustain the gifts of our Ojibwe culture.
Native Lights: Where Indigenous Voices Shine is produced by Minnesota Native News and Ampers, Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities with support from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund. Online at https://minnesotanativenews.org/
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In this episode, we speak with Dan Ninham, PhD, a retired physical education teacher and coach, co-founder of the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame and prolific freelance writer. - BearPaw Shields: Leaving a Legacy for Future Generations
In this episode, we speak with BearPaw Shields from the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes. She is a Saint Cloud State University alumna and is currently the Indigenous Learning Community Program Coordinator at the University’s American Indian Center. In her forties, she decided to go to college and get a degree so that she could make the change she wanted to see in the world. She does that now through her work at St. Cloud State’s American Indian Center, helping Native students to succeed in school and connect with their culture through language, field trips and other experiences. As a board member with the Friends of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, she had been instrumental in teaching park staff and visitors about the land’s Native history. Last year, that included the opening of an amphitheater with art provided by Indigenous artists and the names of park animals provided in Dakota and Ojibwemowin. BearPaw Shields lives in Zimmerman where she likes to go on hikes and find her serenity at the nearby Refuge.
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