Norrgard Anishinaabe Collection Waasa Inaabidaa Archives

Lorraine Norrgard lives in Cloquet, Minnesota, near the Fond du Lac Ojibwe Reservation. Norrgard grew up in the Chicago and the Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin area and received her BFA in filmmaking from the University of Illinois and an MA in educational communications from the University of Hawaii. She worked abroad as a United Nations communications program officer, developing cross-cultural educational media for the Asia Region based in Bangkok, Thailand. She also worked in Germany for Westdeutche Rundfunk Fernsehen as a producer/director.

Norrgard spent 20 years as a documentary filmmaker focusing on Native American subjects as well as other historical topics independently and for Duluth public television. From 1998-2000 at WDSE TV, Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation, a PBS affiliate, she completed six Ojibwe programs for the television’s station’s half-hour Album series: "George Morrison Reflections," "Wild Rice Harvest I & II," "Traditional Ojibwe Ice Fishing," "Honoring the Maple Sugar," "Eastman Johnson's Ojibwe Portraits," and "Indian Princess Demystified." Other award winning titles by Norrgard include "Enduring Ways of the Lac du Flambeau People” and "A Gift to One, A Gift to Many-James Jackson Sr., Ojibwe Medicine Man" that won the Best Documentary award in the New York American Indian Film Festival and was shown at Lincoln Center.

In 1997 Norrgard received a fellowship from the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women where she completed the drama, “Looks Into the Night” that won numerous awards. In 2000, a Jerome Foundation grant placed Norrgard in Russia, Sweden, and Finland for a month exploring the use and the meaning of the birch tree in different cultures in comparison to the Anishinaabeg birch. Norrgard produced and directed the six-part documentary series on the Great Lakes Ojibwe, Waasa Inaabidaa—We Look In All Directions. It won the Best Documentary Award and Producer's Award at the 2002 San Francisco American Indian Film Festival as well as five regional Emmy Awards from the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The series also won the Spirit Award and Documentary Feature Award at the Milwaukee Indian Summer Festival. The series was aired nationally and internationally on American Public Television Network, and the Canadian Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and included a book, website, music CD, and teacher guides.

Lorraine Norrgard states, ”I conducted all the interviews myself in the documentaries and always began with the respectful offering of asemaa [tobacco] to Ojibwe interviewees. I have received three Ojibwe names from Ojibwe elders and have lived near Ojibwe communities since 1978 in Lac du Flambeau and actively participated in local events and volunteer activities making many friends and building trust cross culturally.”

More recent titles by Norrgard include, “Mikwendaagoziwag-The Sandy Lake Tragedy,” “Four Seasons of the Ojibwe children’s series,” and “Carl Gawboy Portrait-The Art of the Everyday.” Norrgard has worked for the Madeline Island Museum on Anishinaabeg programs since 2010.