A Production of WDSE - 8, PBS Duluth, MN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lorraine Norrgard. Producer
phone: (218) 724-8567
e-mail: lorraine_norrgard@wdse.pbs.org

James Fortier
Writer/Associate Producer.
(650) 738-9105
jfortier@turtle-island.com

Beth Lyden, Promotion
phone (218) 724-8567
e:mail beth_lyden@wdse.pbs.org

Introducing

Waasa Inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions



PBS affiliates interested airing this series should contact Lorraine Norrgard at 218-724-8567. This series is now available for home video pre-sales by calling WDSE at 218-724-8567. Also, if your tribal community, urban Indian organization, tribal school or tribal college is interested in a preview screening, also contact Lorraine or Jim Fortier at the numbers above.

Series Summary

WDSE-Eight PBS, Duluth MN

"Waasa Inaabidaa--We Look In All Directions" is the most comprehensive historical and dynamic contemporary portrayal of the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe (Chippewa) nation ever produced for television. The Ojibwe, the second-largest tribe in North America live in the upper Great Lakes region, are blessed with a rich culture and history. This beautiful documentary series showcases the vibrant Ojibwe culture in six hour-long episodes. Each episode spans nearly five hundred years of history, from pre-contact to contemporary times. The six programs focus on Ojibwe language, leadership, economic development, education, health, and the Ojibwe relationship to the environment.

This series features over one hundred interviews with tribal elders, historians, youth, and leaders from the 19 Ojibwe Bands in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Combined with three thousand archival photographs and on-camera testimonials by noted regional historians, this captivating series informs the public about contemporary Ojibwe culture and life. Original and historical artwork combined with dramatic portrayals poignantly illustrates the four seasons traditional life cycle of the Ojibwe, as well as the radical effects of the Fur Trade and European contact. Powerful contemporary and archival footage and still photographs bring to life intimate portraits of Ojibwe culture and history.

The Ojibwe people have a compelling story of adaptation and survival, desperation and ingenuity, bitter betrayals and stunning victories. Though uniquely rooted in the Great Lakes region, Ojibwe history shares many commonalities with other tribal nations throughout the United States and Canada. Many Ojibwe believe that the economic and political success of the 90's may be short-lived if the they do not diversify their economies, consolidate their power, prepare their children, and inform the general public of their unique sovereign status as Anishinaabe-Ojibwe.

Teacher's guides for each episode will be easily accessible through our informative and educational web site: www.ojibwe.org. The series includes original performances by over a dozen Ojibwe singers, drummers, and musicians featured in an original soundtrack produced by composer Peter Buffet (Dances With Wolves, 500 Nations, etc.) which will be available on CD. A beautiful companion book, written by Ojibwe author Dr. Thomas Peacock and published by Afton Historical Society Press will be available as well.

"Waasa Inaabidaa ---We Look In All Directions" has been in production for two years and represents the input of over two hundred Ojibwe individuals and 19 Ojibwe Bands in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Do not miss the opportunity to experience this powerful and riveting story of the Ojibwe people through five hundred years of change, adaptation, survival, and cultural renaissance.

Episode One

Gakina-awiiya – "We Are All Related"

"The Native people have a relationship with the Creator and that is the relationship with the environment.

-Bucko Teeple, Bay Mills Ojibwe

Discover the intimate relationship that the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes Region have with the natural world in this episode of Waasa Inaabidaa-We Look In All Directions. "We are all related" refers to the belief that we are connected and interdependent with all life on earth. Coexistence with all living things is based on respect, sharing, humility, and responsibility--the heart of the Ojibwe worldview.

Episode One: Gakina-awiiya – "We Are All Related" explores the Ojibwe relationship with the natural environment before European contact, and how the land and lives of Ojibwe people were dramatically altered when this delicate balance clashed with the Euro-American philosophies of resource exploitation, treaties, land ownership, and reservations. Finally, witness Ojibwe self-determination in the late 20th century, which firmly reconnects the traditional Ojibwe relationship with all living things. Contemporary times have seen the re-affirmation of off-reservation treaty rights for hunting, fishing, and gathering. The thrust of contemporary Ojibwe tribal governments has been positive natural resource management and a return to the understanding that "we are all related" on this earth.

Episode Two

Gwayakochigewin – "Making Decisions the Right Way"

"The government of the people is the people. That is where the power is, with the people. And the leaders of the people are not all in government. They are all over."

-Winona LaDuke, White Earth Ojibwe

Traditional decision making in Anishinaabe-Ojibwe communities is based on the role of the individual in the family, in the community, in the clan, and in relationship to the Creator. This decision-making process involves oratory in the Ojibwe language and discussion to reach consensus. Leaders come in many forms, but are each characterized by talents and gifts bestowed on them from the Creator. Warriors and Elders are highly regarded for their leadership roles. European contact and the Fur Trade seriously fractured traditional forms of Ojibwe leadership and governance, upsetting traditional clan structures, leadership roles, and egalitarian methods of decision-making.

Episode Two: Gwayakochigewin – "Making Decisions the Right Way" journeys from pre-European contact to contemporary times, portraying the essence of traditional Ojibwe decision-making. Historical Ojibwe chiefs are profiled alongside contemporary Ojibwe leaders. This program traces Ojibwe beginnings as sovereign, independent bands led by councils of headmen, elders, and spiritual leaders; through the United State's paternalistic era of government guardianship; to today's reestablishment of self-determination. Historical hereditary chiefs and today's tribal government leaders have successfully maintained the unique status of Ojibwe tribes as sovereign nations within a nation.Today's leaders and tribal governments come in many forms, but all share in common the responsibilities of decision-making and of doing things the right way for the good of all Ojibwe people.

Episode Three

Gaamiinigooyang – "That Which Is Given To Us"

"These animals and the plants and everything else, their spirits feed our spiritsyou know if we don't have the fish, if we don't have the deer, if we don't have the plants to feed us spiritually we are no longer Anishinaabe.

--Gerald White, Leech Lake Ojibwe

The traditional Anishinaabe-Ojibwe subsistence lifestyle is based on the cycle of the four seasons. This lifestyle reflects the Ojibwe worldview where the individual is dependent on the group, the group is dependent on nature, and nature is dependent upon the supernatural for survival. For centuries, this web of interdependence maintained a balanced relationship with all living things, in a sustainable economic system.

Episode Three: Gaamiinigooyang – "That Which Is Given To Us" describes the traditional Ojibwe survival system through numerous interviews with historians, tribal leaders, and elders; combined with visually stunning dramatic sequences of the four seasons' traditional economic cycle. Key interviews are powerfully illustrated with archival photographs, documents, maps, and historical film footage.

Travel from the times before contact, through the Fur Trade period, which introduced European concepts of personal profit, land ownership, and debt. This episode traces the damaging effects of treaties and land loss on the very survival of the Ojibwe; the economic reforms of the 1960s and 70's self-determination; and contemporary court decisions which have re-affirmed reserved rights to practice traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering. Many of today's Ojibwe people are experiencing a renewed economic sovereignty through new sources of financial stability including gaming, tribal businesses, and individual entrepreneurship.

Episode Four

Bimaadiziwin – "A Healthy Way of Life"

"Good health means that you're in balance, body, mind, and spirit."

--Noreen Smith, Red Lake Ojibwe

To live a good and healthy life, the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe people received knowledge, instructions, and help from the Creator which taught the importance of maintaining a balance between their mental, physical, and spiritual health. Family is at the center of a good way of life.

Episode Four: Bimaadiziwin – "A Healthy Way of Life" examines the Ojibwe's holistic approach to good health and the role of traditional medicine and spiritual healers. Also chronicled is the devastating impact on Ojibwe health brought by European-born epidemics, a shrinking land-base, and government policies of assimilation and acculturation. This program looks at the affects of boarding schools, adoptions, and other traumatic events that caused generations of grief, anger, and dysfunctional family dynamics. Learn also how the Ojibwe people maintained their health through improvements in health delivery systems beginning in 1955 with the creation of the Indian Health Service, and continuing with the training of their own people in western medicine and treatment.

This episode concludes with reaffirmation of traditional healing based on living a good way of life with renewed emphasis on spiritual healing. It examines important milestones such as passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the growth and success of culturally appropriate models of treatment for substance abuse and other social ills, as well as the resurgence of traditional medicine combined with their own modern health clinics.

Episode Five

Gikinoo'amaadiwin – "We Gain Knowledge"

"Education was continual and perpetual in everything that we did and that way then you became a whole person, because there was education for the bodythere was education for the mind and for the unseen.

--Larry Aitken, Leech Lake Ojibwe

In the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe world-view, knowledge is a gift that carries responsibilities. Ojibwe communities have long respected the role of Elders to pass on knowledge to younger generations. This basic precept, in conjunction with the inter-relatedness of all people, is the foundation of family and education in Ojibwe communities. The Ojibwe people have gained knowledge through this important relationship.

Episode Five: Gikinoo'amaadiwin – "We Gain Knowledge" examines the connection between traditional family structures and knowledge--from the clan system through the four phases of life: child, adult, middle age, and elder. For the Ojibwe, learning is a life-long activity of careful observation and respectful listening. What must be fostered is not merely skill, but understanding, not merely knowledge, but wisdom. There is a duty on the part of elders to impart their wisdom and a concomitant obligation on the part of the youth to learn. This cyclical nature of education insured the survival of the Ojibwe people from generation to generation.

This episode chronicles the painful consequences of boarding schools and assimilation policies on the intricate Ojibwe family and education systems. Firsthand accounts from elders and others expose the harmful legacy of missionary and government boarding schools. The program goes on to describe the survival and renewal of traditional educational components of Ojibwe culture. From language preservation to dynamic, tribally run schools and colleges, traditional forms of Ojibwe education thrive once again in an atmosphere of self- determination, empowerment, and Native pride.

Episode Six

Ojibwemowin – "Ojibwe Oral Tradition"

"If we lose the language, we are no more, we may become something else, but we will not be Anishinaabe."

--Walt Bressette, Red Cliff Ojibwe

Language defines the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe people as a culture thriving in a unique relationship with the Creator and the natural world. As the second-largest tribe on the North American continent, they have maintained a vast history through oral tradition for thousands of years, long before European contact. This episode of Waasa Inaabidaa-We Look In All Directions examines the origin stories, language, and oral teachings of the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes Region.

Episode Six: Ojibwemowin – "Ojibwe Oral Tradition" begins with Ojibwe origin narratives, and chronicles the decline and near disappearance of Ojibwe language and culture, continues through rebirth and renewal, and comes full circle to today's cultural renaissance and revival of language and tradition. A mixture of Ojibwe language (with English sub-titles), animation, drama, artwork, archival photos, interviews, and story telling presents a rich tapestry and narrative of Ojibwe creation and tradition. This episode features survival narratives, the migration story, and contemporary language and cultural preservation programs emphasizing today's Ojibwe children and future generations.

The Ojibwe people have adapted and survived generations of assaults on Ojibwe culture, language and identity. Today, Ojibwe language and traditions thrive in all aspects of Anishinaabe-Ojibwe life.