a conversation in Anishinaabemowin, part one. Helen and Q April 2012

C. Helen Roy Fuhst, Ojibwe Language teacher at Michigan State University and Francis (Q) Fox, retired autoworker, conversing. These are two first language Anishinaabemowin speakers, who are first cousins. They are reminiscing about childhood times as they look at old photographs.

[@XOHugz0KissezXO]

I love this.
I may not be able to understand a lot of what they're saying but just listening to this is comforting.

[@youforget1000thingsaday]

The language I'd be speaking if it wasn't for colonization. So beautiful.

[@Linguiphile]

How great it would be to have many more conversations like this as well as autobiographical talks in Ojibwe, all published in dual-language book form with Ojibwe transcriptions on one page and English translations on the other!

[@KingBrandonm]

read Living Our Language. It tells the stories of 20th Century Ojibwe like Archie Mosay first in Aninshinaabemowin, then again in English.

[@keaton_]

Things like this are so important for us trying to reconnect and weren’t raised with the language. It’s comforting, but also very educational. I understand some because of reading, but actually hearing some of it pronounced and the nuances with grammar help so much in understanding vs learning.

[@Dog-ManTribe]

Helen Roy is an anishnaabe treasure!!!

[@TheForeignersNetwork]

This dialogue is invaluable for language revitalization. The original inhabitants of my area before colonization were Bodewadmi, whose language shares many features with Nishnaabemwin. From what I understand, the two share many loan words and the vowel syncope is extremely similar. Thank you for this upload.

[@javdetsh]

thank you for the video. The way they speak, the intonations and sound combinations resemble the way our Tatar elders speak! But that is thousands of miles away on another continent

[@ntvrthmn]

11 years ago?! I've watched this video half a dozen times as an exercise in learning Ojibwemowin and have barely understood it, except for a few words. Part of that is due to your non-Minnesota and non-Wisconsin dialect. I'm not being critical at all. But I recently learned how to slow down the audio-video speed and now I'm understanding more. Mii-gwetch.

[@URAUNTSANDI]

My late Brother, Q and my Cousin , Helen ......

[@cherfox2387]

Uncle Q baah & Auntie Helen... This is heart warming!

[@pfaffman100]

We need more .

[@donkolo2229]

this is great!! miigwetch! its like immersion

[@QosmonSagataw]

Aanii Helen! i thought you were talking about me for a sec! haha. miss you! i'll be in touch soon!!

[@youforget1000thingsaday]

The language of my people! Boozhoo!

[@BlueberryDoughnuts]

:)