This Fall saw the long-awaited release of Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe, the Lakota Berenstain Bears project – at last! Launch point was the United Tribes International Powwow in Bismarck, ND on September 8-10. The voice cast and costumed Mother and Father Bear rode a float in the annual Parade of Champions through Bismarck, sparking cheers and photographs from all residents. Select episodes of the series played on a loop at the LLC booth on the powwow grounds, drawing children, parents and grandparents, who were absorbed in the sound of the language being spoken by a caring family.
Mother and Father Bear met scores of fans – check out our picture albums on Facebook. An honoring ceremony during the powwow’s Grand Entry recognized the work of the voice cast, the co-producers from Standing Rock and LLC, and the generosity of Berenstain Enterprises, our legal advisor and other businesses that waived fees and made gifts to make the series happen.
LLC has been keeping followers updated on the project via Facebook and a dedicated website, LakotaBears.com. For those of you just tuning in, Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe is Lakota for “The Compassionate Bear Family.” It is 20 episodes of the beloved Berenstain Bears cartoon series made popular on PBS, completely translated and performed in Lakota. Twelve voice actors were recruited from the different Lakota communities to include distinct regional dialects in the Bear Country population – making the series valuable for deeper linguistic study of the language.
Each half-hour broadcast contained two episodes, making a ten-week broadcast schedule, which ran on Sunday mornings from September 11, to November 13th on South Dakota Public Broadcasting and Prairie Public TV. Both stations ran the series on their digital cable subchannels. Beginning this week it will be broadcast on KOLC and CRST’s IPTV.
The response to this project has exceeded all expectations. Between the promotional efforts of the two TV networks, LLC’s own publicity campaign, and an Associated Press wire story, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide have been introduced to the Lakota language as spoken by the Berenstain Bears. Stories have appeared in 160 newspapers internationally. Blogs, web sites and radio shows have also featured the Bears. Some of the most prominent coverage has come from Bloomberg Business Week, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Huffington Post, and Rachel Maddow’s blog. |
