Manuelito Wheeler - Navajo Star Wars

 

Thank you. And [Navajo language] So, I have just introduced myself in Navajo. [audience cheers and applause] 

 

Language equals culture. So, it's the late 1990s, and my wife has gone to grad school, and she left me with our three-year-old son at the time. And so, she started school and she got an apartment in Tempe. We had a small apartment. Then I came down three, four months later. 

 

I had a three-year-old son, and I needed a job and I'd always found myself in the museum world. So, where do I go to look for work right away? The Heard Museum. You may have heard of it. No pun intended. [audience laughter] So, I go apply for a curatorial type job there. Do great on my interview. Think I have it in the bag. Get a call, “Sorry you didn't get it.” It wasn't that cold, but you know, “Sorry I didn't get it. But you know what? The Heard's expanding and they need some help in the carpenter shop.” And I'm like, “Okay, I need a job, I'll take it.” So, I was the carpenter's assistant, and then I moved up to the exhibit installer and then I moved up to the design manager there at the Heard Museum. 

 

So, during my time there, my wife has finished her masters and now she's onto her doctorate in English lit. All the while, she's teaching Navajo. So, she's teaching Navajo to high school students here in the Phoenix area. We would always have this discussion of how do we make our language relevant, how do we get these young people to connect to our language? This is something that's very close to both of us. It's close to me, because I'm not fluent in Navajo, and that's a secret shame that I carry with me. That's a secret shame that people of my generation, we carry with us. And it's like, there it is, something that's part of us and it's fading and we're trying to figure out how to save it. 

 

So, we're sitting around the dinner table and we talk about, man, it would be really cool to have our own movies in the Navajo language. And so, they're like, “Yeah, yeah. that would be cool.” So, we toss some ideas around. She maybe has said like, “We should do the Steel Magnolias in Navajo.” [audience laughter] But then, I say like, “You know, think about it for a while. We should do Star Wars.” [audience laughter] Maybe you've heard of it. 

 

The reason I thought about Star Wars and it stuck is like, it's such a timeless classic. There are themes in the movie that I really felt connected with Navajos/Native people. This idea that the universe is connected, and if we do something that affects this side of the universe, it's going to ultimately affect this side of the universe. The idea that there's good and there's bad and how we choose to use it is up to us, but it will have its consequences. So, I really felt that those ideals would really stick with Navajo people, especially our traditional elders. 

 

So, this is a time when the Internet was brand new, and there was that thing that was like AOL and you've got mail, and computers were huge and you would clack away on them. And so, I get on the internet, I find the script to Star Wars Episode 4, for those of you that need some clarification. [audience laughter] It comes in the mail, and I look at it, and I put it on the shelf and forget about it for a few weeks. And then, I find it again, I look through it, and there's my wife. And I tell her, “You think you could do these five pages and translate them in Navajo?” And she's like, “Yeah.” And I'm thinking, I'm not going to get this back until a few days or a week or so. She comes back in about 30 minutes. It's all typed up, and she hands me the papers and I'm like, “Whoa.” That's when I had that light bulb moment of this can be done. This is real. 

 

So, again, I research Lucasfilm, of course, and send emails. This process goes on for about 10 years of going to different parts of Lucasfilm. There's the emails, there's the 800 numbers. I'm not a pest. I'm not emailing Lucasfilm every day or anything like that. It's just like a couple times a year. And then, the position opens up at the Navajo Nation Museum to be the director. I apply, I get it, we move our family back to our beloved res. 

 

Then the idea resurges again. I'm like, “I'm going to try this other door.” Send the email off again. And one day, the email pops up, and it's from Michael from Lucasfilm. And his email says, “We got your message, and this is something that we're interested in.” And then, of course, I call my wife first, I'm like, “Guess who I got an email from?” I was like, “Lucasfilm. They're on. They want to do this.” The stipulation though, was that we would have to fund the production, the Navajo Nation would have to fund this production. 

 

So, I gather myself, I go up to my boss, go up to his office. He's a cool guy. I've always gotten along with him. And I tell him, “Hey, this idea about Lucasfilm, and they're interested in putting Star Wars in the Navajo language. It's going to be great and it's going to be the best thing that ever happened to the Navajo Nation.” He's just nodding his head and he's like, “That's nice, Manny.” I just felt this sinking feeling, like he doesn't get it. He doesn't see the vision that I have. 

 

And so, he's like, “Well, put a budget together and we'll see if we can find some money for you to do this.” And of course, there are much bigger problems on the Navajo Nation. People actually live without running water and electricity there. So, my project was going to have to take a back seat for a while. But I'm not discouraged. I go to various Navajo Nation programs, and I'm like, “Great project. No, sorry.” “Great project. We should do this.” “No, sorry.” And so, this is over, I would say, six to eight months. And at that time, it's something that you feel like you have lightning in a bottle, but nobody wants to buy it. 

 

And then, finally, I come across another person that I know. He oversees the fairs for the Navajo Nation and he's like, “I'm trying to look for something that's entertaining, something that would bring a lot of people together.” And I'm like, “I've got a project for you.” I explained my idea about putting Star Wars, dubbing it Navajo over a Star Wars movie. And he's like, “Yeah, that sounds pretty good. Let's do it.” And I'm like, “Oh.” I'm trying to be cool on the inside. He said, “I need something for the fourth of July fair.” And I'm like, “Oh, okay, yeah, I can do it.” [chuckles] And so, I rush over to my team. 

 

My team was very small. It was a team of about 10 people. And I'm like, “Okay, we got to do this.” We had to put together a press release, and we send it to Lucasfilm for their approval. They approve it, and then it goes out to the internet, and then it takes off like wildfire. My phone starts ringing every day, at least every hour maybe. And it's the BBC, it's NPR, it's CNN, like all of these different major media outlets. They want to talk to me about how this project's getting done, why it's getting done. I couldn't believe it. And I'm like, “Oh.” 

 

And then, I get a call from my friend who lives in Los Angeles, and he's like, “Manny, this story, Navajo Star Wars, is trending at number seven on Yahoo.” And I'm like, “Oh, cool. What does that mean?” [audience laughter] And so, he's like, “Well, let me put it this way. The Olympics are trending at number eight.” And I'm like, “Whoa.” So, that's when it hit me. We started to get rolling. The people from Burbank, they came out and gave us a tutorial on how to get things rolling. So, we auditioned for Star Wars in two days. We had over 400 people come over those two days auditioning to be a part of this. We had five translators in a room, and they translated the whole script in 36 hours and then we go into production. It was just one massive, amazing blur. 

 

But let me put it this way. We started on April 12th, and we premiered the movie on July 3th. One of the things I'm most proud of, is it was mostly done by Navajo people. We really got together and made this happen. So, here we are. [audience applause] 

 

Here we are. We're premiering it. And guess what? A rodeo arena. Classic Navajo style. [audience laughter] It wasn't just a rodeo arena. A rodeo had actually happened less than an hour prior to us [audience laughter] doing this premiere. So, imagine if you will, and here comes a giant semi-driving into the rodeo arena. And my people, they had built a movie screen on the side of the semi-truck. And it pulls into the middle of the rodeo arena. And people, the stands are filled. Over 2,000 people were there, and they're all waiting for this movie to start. The cast and crew is there, people from Burbank are there, people from Hollywood are there. Everybody is excited to see this. And my wife, she's sitting right next to me. And then the lights go down. People applaud, cheer, kind of. And then, it happens, that light blue font, a long time ago, in a galaxy far-far away, it appears on the screen, but it's in Navajo. And then, the crowd goes wild. They cheer. And it's almost like a frenzy. 

 

And here comes the crawl, the crawl's in Navajo. My wife and I are sitting there, and I squeeze her hand and we're just sitting there. She's crying tears are coming down her eyes, but I'm not crying. [audience laughter] Maybe I was crying. It was a rodeo arena. [audience laughter] It was dusty and dust getting in my eyes. [audience laughter] So, then here comes the big imperial cruiser descending upon Princess Leia's ship. It goes C-3PO. C-3PO, utters the first words, and C3PO's in Navajo. And then, here comes Darth Vader and he lifts up the rebel and he's like, “Where is the princess? Where are the plans?” 

 

Darth Vader's voice in Navajo. [audience laughter] And the crowd is going crazy. I'm there, sitting there, squeezing my wife's hand. I'm thinking of our grandmothers that have gone on to the next world. I'm thinking of our grandfathers that have gone on to the next world, our uncles that have gone on to the next world, our aunts that have gone on to the next world, that I wish they were here to see this. This is our culture. It's living on. This is our culture, and now there was a new hope.