Ivy Vainio
Poets in Motion
Hungarian poet Gabor G. Gyukics visited Ojibwe poet/author Jim Northrup at his Sawyer, Minnesota, home in winter a few years ago and this week Jim went to visit Hungary.
Poets, in Motion
Odzsibve?
Igen!
No, it’s not a conversation you’re likely to hear at the Olympics this week in Sochi. You might hear it, though, if you were part of the tour that author-humorist-poet Jim Northrup, a Fond du Lac Ojibwe tribal member, from Sawyer, Minnesota, is finishing up this week in Hungary.
Jim was invited by the U.S. Embassy in Budapest to speak about the Ojibwe culture and about his writing. Jim’s poetry was translated into Hungarian by poet Gabor G. Gyukics for the book Nagy Kis-Madár (Big Little Bird). Gabor is working on a larger anthology of contemporary North American Indigenous poetry. He also has translated the poems of another regional author, Al Hunter. Books (in English) by Jim and Al have been reviewed by Lake Superior Magazine.
On this tour, which began Monday and wraps up today, Gabor has translated for Jim as he address audiences in museums, universities, high schools and other venues.
Jim has visited a couple dozen foreign countries while in the U.S. Marines and also traveling as an author. He’s also welcomed visitors to his Sawyer home from Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway – and Scotland, England, Macedonia, Japan, China, New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Germany, Italy and France. Gabor was one of those visitors.
“We hope that Mr. Northrup will be able to explore the role that Native Americans play within the broader American culture, and that he can challenge pre-conceived notions that people may have conceived about depictions of Native Americans in popular media through the years,” Monika Vali, cultural specialist for the U.S. Embassy in Budapest.
“Many Hungarians are fascinated with Native American culture and feel a kinship with Native American warrior culture, which they see as similar to ancient Hungarian warrior culture. Even during the Socialist era, movies and television shows that depicted the lifestyle of Native Americans was fascinating to Hungarians.”
Depiction of Native Americans in movies is one of the notions that Jim hopes to revise for Hungary people during his visit. ““I’ll have to go to dispel the image of American Indians from Hollywood, the Karl May stories from Germany,” Jim said before his journey. Karl May wrote a number of young people’s stories mixing several Native American cultures into a few characters popular in Germany.
We’ll be curious to hear if Jim has learned any Hungarian when he returns. Then we’ll know if he ever really had this exchange:
Odzsibve? (Ojibwe?)
Igen! (Yes!)
– Konnie LeMay
Social media fuels Apostle Islands ice cave visitation
Sam Cook in the Duluth News Tribune:
An estimated 11,000 people visited the park’s ice-festooned sea caves on Lake Superior last weekend.
The National Park Service, its resources stretched thin by the unexpected flood of visitors, posted a new FAQ document this week. Take a look before you head to the caves.
+ Lake Superior ice cover topped 95 percent this week, and hovered at 94.6 percent at the workweek's end. On Tuesday, Duluth set a new record for most consecutive days with a subzero low.
+ Adam Clark, chief meteorologist at KBJR in Duluth: "Lake Superior's ice will change upcoming seasons."
+ This winter's deep freeze is pushing Great Lakes ice cover close to the 1979 record, reports the Detroit Free Press.
+ Paul Sundberg's Photos of the Week, of a snowy owl.
+ Kurt Hauglie, reporting from Calumet Township, Michigan: "Some new users are taking advantage of a section of the Swedetown Trails, and most of them have four legs."
+ Darren Taylor at SooToday covers the continued development of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario's cycling master plan.