By STEVE MARTINDALE
FOR SALT SPRING FILM FESTIVAL SOCIETY
The groundbreaking work of award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard returns to ArtSpring when the Salt Spring Film Festival presents her new documentary Singing Back the Buffalo on Wednesday, Feb. 5, as part of the popular “Best of the Fests” series.
One of the most upbeat, hopeful and visually stunning Indigenous films in recent memory, Singing Back the Buffalo investigates the concept of “rematriation” – in which sacred relationships are restored between Indigenous people and their ancestral lands – eloquently exploring how the return of the buffalo to the Great Plains can usher in a new era of sustainability and balance.
An associate professor at the University of Alberta and a founding director of the International Buffalo Relations Institute, Hubbard spent eight years interviewing Indigenous people across North America who are collaborating through buffalo breeding programs to restore the species from the edge of extinction to repopulate the lands they once defined.
“I wanted to tell the history of buffalo and Indigenous people from a completely Indigenous perspective,” said Hubbard. “I began to constantly reflect on what it had meant to Indigenous peoples and the land to lose this integral keystone species, to lose our benevolent relative with whom we had been in reciprocity for millennia.”
After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are returning, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists and leaders such as Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear.
“Leroy talks about the deep time relationship we have with buffalo,” said Hubbard. “His concept of buffalo consciousness has profoundly influenced my academic work, and now it is the nucleus for the film.”
Working with a mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous crew to capture some truly gorgeous wildlife cinematography, Hubbard said she has been fortunate to spend hours observing buffalo in Saskatchewan’s spectacular Grasslands National Park. “I want people to have a sense of how these beautiful beings live and act in their kinship groups: as families and communities.”
Hubbard was last on Salt Spring Island in 2019 with her film nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, about the tragic death of Colten Boushie, which was named Best Documentary by the Hot Docs and DOXA film festivals, and named Best Canadian Documentary by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle.
This year’s Best of the Fests series at ArtSpring wraps up on Wednesday, Feb. 19 with Fairy Creek, a new documentary chronicling the recent Ada’itsx Valley anti-logging blockades – featuring Salt Spring residents on the frontlines – presented by attending filmmakers Jen Muranetz and Sepehr Samimi.
Tickets are $14 each and available online at artspring.ca, in advance by phone (250-537-2102) or in person when the box office is open (Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.), or at the door starting an hour before each film.