Through poetry Margaret Noodin keeps her Native American language alive

Michigan Radio interviewed Margaret Noodin, Director of the Electa QUinney Institute, and an Assistant Professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Margaret Noodin has made it her life’s work to fight for the future of the ancient Native American language Anishnaabemowin. This is the language of “the People of the Three Fires”—the Odawa, Potawatomi and Ojibwe. These people came to the Great Lakes thousands of years ago.
Today, the language is threatened. They’re losing speakers faster than they’re gaining them.
Noodin’s new book of poetry is one way to keep this language alive and fresh. Weweni (Wayne State University Press) is a collection of poems in Anishinaabemowin and English.
Noodin Portait at Cedears
CREDIT TROYE FOX / UWM PHOTOGRAPHY