Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets'aii Gwich'in) is an Indigenous TV and film producer on a journey of learning, reclaiming, and revitalizing her ancestral language of Gwich’in, which is only spoken by a few hundred people.

In this new episode of Seedcast, find out how Indigenous residential schools on Turtle Island contributed to this language crisis and how Princess is inspiring a whole new generation to be curious about Indigenous languages through her work as a screenwriter on the Peabody award-winning PBS Kids series Molly of Denali.

Also, get a peek into the work Princess and fellow filmmaker Alisha Carlson are doing with Nia Tero’s Reciprocity Project.

Hosted by Jessica Ramirez; produced by Kavita Pillay; edited by Jenny Asarnow.

This episode won a 2022 Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA, formerly Native American Journalists Association) award for Best Radio/Podcast Coverage of Native America, Second Place.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Tanan Ch'at'oh (Gwich'in language immersion) 
• Dinjii Vadzaih Dhidlit: The Man Who Became a Caribou (bilingual book)

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.