Program · Anishinaabemowin · The talking doll
From an Elder's voice to a child's hands
Companion to the doll. This is the part you cannot see or touch, and it is most of the work.
The path a phrase travels
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1
The Elder records.
On his terms, at his pace, in his orthography. Sessions are short and respectful of his time. Nothing is recorded that he has not agreed to record.
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2
A written consent record is created with the recording, not after it.
It names the uses: this teaching collection, the lesson app, the games, and the doll, each one separately agreed. A use he has not agreed to does not happen. He can withdraw a use later and we honour it, including in already-made dolls at their next reload.
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3
A human curates.
Every recording is checked by a person before it enters the collection. Transcription drafts from machines are treated as drafts. Spelling is preserved exactly as the Elder writes it. No AI ever generates Anishinaabemowin anywhere in this system.
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4
The phrase set for the doll is chosen with him.
He hears the doll before any family does.
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5
Audio is exported for the doll
only for items whose consent record covers physical-device use. The export step checks this; it is enforced by the data layer, not by someone remembering.
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6
The doll ships with provenance.
Each doll's card carries a manifest: which recordings, which speaker, which consent version. Years later, anyone can answer "whose voice is this, and did they agree to this?" with a file, not a memory.
Where the platforms fit
Where Waaseyaa fits
Waaseyaa is the framework layer, where the governance is structural instead of bolted on. For the doll it provides the consent and provenance machinery: every recording is an entity with per-field access control, an append-only audit trail of every access and change, and consent recorded as data. The export-to-doll step is a gate the framework enforces. If an item's consent record does not cover toys, the export refuses it.
Where Minoo fits
Minoo is the community platform built on Waaseyaa, the dedicated language platform. It is where the language data lives: the dictionary, the recordings' metadata, the speakers, the dialects. The doll is, in data terms, a tiny read-only copy of a consent-cleared slice of Minoo, baked onto a memory card. The doll's phrase sets are managed there: a language teacher picks phrases in Minoo's admin, the export tool checks consent and writes the card.
Where the community fits
Everywhere else. The doll bodies are sewn in community. The phrase lists are chosen with Elders and teachers. The testing happens in family homes. The masters are held by the Nation. OIATC's role is the plumbing and the publishing of the open design, not ownership. The suggestion that started this page came from a community member in a public thread, which is exactly how this should work.