The Navajo Nation will be holding an open casting call this weekend in Window Rock, Arizona for fluent speakers of the consonant-rich Navajo native language (Diné bizaad), in order to dub one of the most popular movies of all time, Star Wars. The project was first conceived by Manuelito Wheeler, the director of the Navajo Nation Museum, 13 years ago as a way to help preserve the native language, which was largely wiped out during the colonization of the American Southwest. It is currently spoken by only about 170,000 people, which is more native speakers than any other Native American language north of Mexico.

The project was given the go-ahead 18 months ago, and the script has already been translated into Navajo. There are not a lot of word for word translations from English, so often many Navajo words had to be used to convey the same meaning. For example, “May the force be with you,” doesn’t have a direct translation, though Wheeler is keeping mum on what they did use instead until after the film has screened.

The casting call with be held on Saturday and Sunday at the Navajo Nation museum in Window Rock. Currently about 75 people have signed up. The finished dub (with English translation) will be screened in Window Rock for the Navajo’s Fourth of July celebrations, and then again in September at the Navajo Nation Fair.

[via Reuters]

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Megan Patterson is the Science and Technology Editor at feminist geekery site Paper Droids and currently a Toronto Standard intern. She also tweets more than is healthy or wise. 

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