All right. Thanks for being patient with us. Give me a sense of what the overall mission
is here tonight. What is this event meant to do? So it's meant to revitalize that practice
of going out on the waters and sparing fish traditionally as our ancestors have been doing
for hundreds and hundreds of years. There was a period of time where a lot of our families
weren't able to get out onto the boats. Our youth weren't getting that opportunity to see
these practices in real time. And so it was about maybe 10 plus years ago. I was the director of
youth services. It was very new. We might have had like four kids signing up, but we took them out.
It was a different lake. It might have been the second annual. By the time I came into the stage
and it's really taken off since then. Now we've collaborated with Bad River. We have Bad River
Youth and Recliff Youth. I think a couple of years ago we've enhanced an LCO youth coming.
So I mean this is really given not just youth the opportunity. Now we've got families coming.
And families are coming in and we got some moms that get out there. They're able to get up there
and try for the first time. And Matt, you just got to try it one time in your hook. Like in
that excitement, that thrill, being able to do something that you know your ancestors have been
doing for hundreds of years and being able to preserve that and carry that on for our kids
is really really important to us. Yeah. It was without an event like this. Would it only be like
if your parents or your uncle or someone like it would be a very close family to pass it on?
This you don't have to have that, right? Yeah, we don't have to have that. And we do. We open it
up to families so that families will be able to get out there and have that experience. If we
have the capacity, sometimes we might not have the capacity and we just are able to do it for
youth. But if we can get families out there, that happened to us, right? Like we got out there,
we went on about a few years back with some friends during this event. Now we have our own
we bring our grandkids out. We're bringing our kids out now. So, you know, we didn't have that
experience growing up. I didn't. By the time I was old enough to get on the boat, my grandparents
and my uncles, they were kind of done with it. So I never got that opportunity. And so it wasn't
something that I did into adults and so it wasn't nothing that I was doing for my own kids and how
this event started to happen. And so that's why we keep doing it. And it, you know, builds more
and more experience as every year that we do it. What do you see in the change in the kids as
they talk about them getting connected to that? Yeah, so I'm just going to give you an example,
right? And this is one that I'm so proud of because I was able to provide some traditional
ecological knowledge with this. Last year I brought a student out, a kid out. Me and my
husband did for the first time. He was his first time spirit. We were out there for a good while
and he got his first fish, right? And so he really loved it. And so I'm a teacher at the school and
so I see the student all year long. When can we get back out there? When can we get back out there?
Nuku Nuku is the time is the time. I said, no. When you hear those peepers, it's time. So the
other day he comes up to me, Nuku, which means grandma and that's what all the kids call me.
I heard that peeper. I heard those peepers is the time. It's time. Let's get ready to go. We're
going Friday. Make sure you have your tribal ID and we'll see you down there. So he'll be coming
down with us. And so that's what it means to them, right? And being able to come out, make
connections with people that they might not be able to make connections with from the community
building more connections with community members, right?
I don't see our youth outside of school too often but now they see me. They see me in the school
and they see me down here at the boat landing and I'm taking them out and that's really what
it's about. It's about connecting all of us together and doing something that is traditional
and cultural and we have language trainees here now that are being able to do those things in
the language. And we have the fish dance so they're able to see those things. You'll see that tonight.
We do a ceremony before. They're going to learn history.
What are people have had to go through in order for us to be able to do this today?
So that's the full circle. The people at the tribe that are helping bring the fish out to
harvest the eggs and then they're putting the fish back in. So this is there for the future,
yeah because you know our traditional ways is we only take what we need and we always give
something back, right? And so in order for us to do that and we do have to co-exist with
all sorts of fishermen so we do our part to make sure that we're not taken away from anyone and
that we're not depleting fish populations and that's just who we are and what we do. I really can't
say anything more than that other than that's just what we do.
Talk to me a little bit about the blend that we've got going on like kids playing football like
you've got like food over here but then like there's like all the cultural stretch here.
Yeah so the kids right now are playing football in a little bit. You'll probably see some lacrosse
sticks getting pulled out and they'll probably be playing lacrosse which is the creator's game.
And so that's really really taken off in the last few years. We've seen more of that.
Last year there was a pretty intense game going on between Radcliffe and Bad River which was pretty
cool. So yeah kids are kind of intermingling. It's a good opportunity for our Radcliffe kids
and our Bad River kids to make connections with one another which is also really important right
because we were all we're all one tribe and although we live on different reservations now
it wasn't that way back when our ancestors preserved this right for us to do this right.
And so coming together and being able to do that is really important for them. You also see like
adults kind of standing around and they're also intermingling Radcliffe and Bad River.
We have some tribal employees that are cooking and providing some stuff for this event and a little
bit you'll see the drum getting pulled out. So we'll do some songs. There'll be a prayer that said
we say a prayer for the for the water and all those things are really important right. It's
that talking about why we do those things, why we're protecting the water, why we protect earth,
why we take care of the things that we have and things that we were giving. And so we're able to
smash that all into one pretty awesome event yeah. Talk to me a little about your job at the
school and how that directly connects with what's going on here. So it I mean it I guess it doesn't
really directly connect I mean I don't know. But I mean it isn't about immersion. Yeah yeah it's
about immersion so I'm the immersion co-teacher for the kindergarten first grade down to Bayfield
School. That's very recent. I started off as a language trainee for the Radcliffe tribe.
They really set up an awesome program there that fast-tracked my ability to learn language and
then get into the school and teach in that capacity. It directly relates to this event because the
kids that will be here today see me in the school right and they see and they hear me speak in one
driveway and sometimes that's all I'm saying to them and they're like I have no idea what
you're saying. I'll tell you at the school. But yeah so it's really important that they see
their their educators at events like this because of they feel like that sense of belonging right
and so they feel that in the school. Hey I see you at at spearing and you know just like you and
I can connect with you in that way and I know you're here for me and we come from the same
background and that's really important for our kids because me growing up and I went to the same
school. I had some really good educators but I really didn't feel like I was seen in a way
because there wasn't that understanding of coming from the same place and now that our kids are
seeing that and they're seeing that here and they feel more comfortable and they feel more
tacked in to who they are. They're tribal identities. Can you run me through some of the language
that's important to an event like this that you're hopefully going to be having the kids
understand and sure yeah um so that's um spearing. Anit is the spirit. Asemon like we will be passing
our tobacco, jimon, boat, hui-waini, his anglama's in you know be careful.
Yeah. What's walai? Oga. Oga. Yeah yeah. Oga.
Yeah that's really I'm kind of drawn to blank right there. I'll walk away and think of like a
hundred words for you yeah. All right can I get you to say and spell your name just so I have a
correction on tape. Yep uh shogabu equi, mistina radine uh you want me to spell it?
M-I-S-T-Y-N-O-R-D-I-N-S-H-O-G-A-A-B-A-W-I-I-K-W-E. Shogabu equi is my initial obi name.
Yeah I've had to do this and I got that one down. Oh wow. That's perfect. I was gonna ask you to
that section. Yeah okay. All right. Thank you so much. All right.
I like them. Like movement can be nice. I just like I don't like movement if it's the only shot
we have and then you're locked in. They're like oh I didn't really need a pan there. I just needed
a four second or two seconds of that shot. Okay. A lot of times depending on the pacing of the
story I like rapid cut like two second shots establish something and then move through a scene
rather than like a long. Do you want is this like you said kind of wide? Is this too wide?
Is that kind of what they're looking for? You know you could probably go in a little further.
You're right.
Okay all right baby.
Thank you.