>> Bizhiki refers to,
it's what we recognize as [speaks in Ojibwe],
or like a buffalo.
And you know, my name, the name that was given to me,
was Bizhikiins or like young buffalo.
And that was given to me by the late Eddie Benton-Banai,
who was a really great person,
an individual that has empowered a lot of our communities
to reclaim our way of life, revitalize our language,
revitalize our doings,
and just be unapologetically who we are as Anishinaabe.
So part of that name [drum booming]
was to kind of pay homage
to some of those old-timers that really paved the way
for us to be able to have the rights
and the things that we have today as Indigenous people.
>> And growing up,
how was language a part of your upbringing?
>> Growing up, there wasn't a ton.
To look back now, and you know, I'm not very old,
but to look back now
to today where we're at with many of our communities,
it's amazing to see all of the different types
of programming
and all the different infrastructure that we have in place.
All three of our children have the opportunity
to attend Ojibwe immersion schools,
which, you know, obviously I didn't have that opportunity
as a kid growing up.
And so they're being taught only in our language.
So, shout-out to Waadookodaading in Hayward
or the community of Odaawaa-Zaaga'iganiing in LCO.
That's a big movement going on there
and has created kind of this huge spark
all across Ojibwe country.
>> When I hear the drums in your song
and the video "Unbound,"
it sounds so deeply personal.
I'm sure it resonates with a lot of people.
Tell me about the significance of some of the drums
that you use and some of the other instruments.
>> To us, the drum is really integral
and a very important part of everything that we do,
whether it's, you know...
There's different types of drums,
We have ceremonial drums.
We have, you know, hand drums, powwow-style drums.
So those powwow-style drums are kind
of the more social drums
that we're able to bring out into the public.
Also carry deep meaning as well,
and say that any of those drums,
they kind of carry that heartbeat of Mother Earth.
And so that drum or that sound of that drum, you know,
is reminiscent of hearing your mother's heartbeat
when you're in the womb.
And so I was always taught
that the drums that you use have kind of like this impact
or effect on people
and help touch people in a good way, help heal people.
[Dylan singing in Ojibwe]
Part of making the music that we make, you know,
part of it is we just try to be as creative as possible,
and we're, you know, expressing ourselves
and making things that we like.
But another part of it too was using our platform
to normalize our sounds, our style of singing,
and our language where, you know,
you might not hear all those things
in any kind of mainstream setting.
But it was important for us
to be able to share those things.
And you know, like my relatives that we work with,
you know, in kind of the language world,
we always say like, that's a big part of it.
As we bring back language in a substantial way,
it's becoming normalized where it's okay
to hear Ojibwemowin, our language, being spoke, you know,
in a supermarket or, you know, in a random place.
You know, that's how we have to look at it,
as we're all contributing
to the normalization of those things.
>> Thank you so much for that powerful message.
>> Sounds great. Thank you.