What are you often doing at that hour?

*Hinųksgu working on WAZI

I’m starting up the coffee pot and thinking, “It’s time to check in on Radio WAZI.”  Radio WAZI is a continuous YouTube broadcast of Hoocąk language stories, songs and conversations recorded by fluent speakers of the past and present. The broadcast was inspired by discussions at UW-Madison’s Indigenous Language Table, highlighting the critical need for Hoocąk language learners to have regular access to fluent, spoken Hoocąk. Our oldest recording was made in the 1930s, and the newest several weeks ago.

What do you like most about this part of your day?

The quiet–the space to think, the sound of the birds waking up, the feeling that it’s just me and the house and the dim light and the animals. It’s a special kind of quiet, unlike any other. have my best thoughts at this time of day. Sometimes realizations and inspirations come in this early morning light that I can’t recapture at any other time.

What I like least about this part of the day is knowing that it is short and fleeting. But that’s what makes it so precious.

How can you tell when your work is going well? When it’s not?

When I pull up Radio WAZI and see that others are already watching and listening. It’s just a handful of people who listen right now, but I’d love to increase listenership and add resources that would expand Radio WAZI into a more effective learning tool. Recently, I added 27 new songs and over a dozen new stories. Now I just hope people will tune in and discover the updates.

Sometimes when I pull it up, I see that it has conked out, and I rush to restart it. Other times I pull it up and everything’s fine, except that I haven’t added anything to the playlist in ages, and then I feel guilty.

*Editor’s note: Hinųksgu in Hochunk means “sweet lady.”