NISHNAABE-LANGUAGE IMMERSION BY BARBARA NOLAN
Miigwech Kido Biidaankwad
“Biidaankwad Says Thank You”
35 min.

Miigwech to Margaret Hele, Barbara Burns and Roseanna McCoy for their camerawork and kind assistance in helping us to record this video.

Determined to earn some cash so that he will one day be able to attend medical school, the entrepreneurial Biidaankwad – a mere ten-years-old – is hard at work as a door-to-door salesperson.

On one especially bad day at work, one of Biidaankwad’s potential customers is particularly good-hearted toward him and succeeds wonderfully in lifting the young boy’s spirits. In “Miigwech Kido Biidaankwad,” Barbara Nolan reminds us that even the small kindnesses we show toward others can return to us many times over.


By Barbara Nolan

Barbara Nolan is a first-speaker of Nishnaabemwin who has spent several decades working with a variety of organizations to revitalize the Nishnaabe language. Most recently, her dream of passing her language on has come true: Barbara has successfully passed her language on to John Paul Montano. This website, barbaranolan.com, is one part of their continuing efforts to help other Nishnaabe people acquire the language.