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Film Screening: Singing Back the Buffalo
April 25 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm CDT
In the spirit of Earth Day, join us for a screening of Singing Back the Buffalo, an award-winning documentary by Cree filmmaker Dr. Tasha Hubbard. We offer two ways to see the film. Watch the movie virtually at your leisure anytime from April 18-May 2, 2025, or join us in person at our watch party followed by a virtual discussion with Singing Back the Buffalo filmmaker Dr. Tasha Hubbard on April 25th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m at Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum.
In a time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow. After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are awaiting their return, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists, leaders and communities, including award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up). Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance.
On her journey, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate – but uncertain – goal of buffalo rematriation. Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.
Audience Responses:
“So magnificent!”
“My most anticipated movie of the year”
“Gorgeous!”
Tickets
Virtual – $20 – All links will be emailed before April 24th
You can view the film at your leisure anytime between April 18-May 2nd, 2025. Be sure to join us on Friday, April 25rd at 8 pm for a discussion with the filmmaker Dr. Tasha Hubbard.
In-Person – $25/single ticket or $45/2 tickets
Join us for an in-person watch party of the film Singing Back the Buffalo. A limited number of tickets will be available for this screening on April 25 at 6:30 p.m., followed by a discussion at 8:00 pm via zoom with filmmaker Dr. Tasha Hubbard. The watch party will feature light snacks and refreshments at the Gichigamiin Indigenous Nations Museum. Limited Seating Available
Director’s Statement
Feel the vibrations from the millions of hooves, see the immense clouds of dust in the air on your skin, witness the Buffalo move through their territory. This is being dreamed about by Indigenous peoples across North America. Our relative, the buffalo, deserves an epic. Singing Back the Buffalo combines my academic work with my search to tell compelling Indigenous stories in a visual and connective way. It follows key themes: Buffalo Kinship, Genocide, Confinement, Women and Buffalo, and finally, Return, or Rematriating, the Buffalo to the lands. These form the framework for what I wished to be a layered and interwoven film. I wanted to tell both the history of Buffalo and Indigenous people from our perspective, as well as the future vision we have for our collective return to living in balance with the land.
Dr. Tasha Hubbard
Director & Producer
Cree filmmaker and an associate professor in the Faculty of Native Studies and the Department of English and Film at the University of Alberta. Tasha is from Peepeekisis First Nation in Treaty Four Territory and has ties to Thunderchild First Nation in Treaty Six Territory. She is also the mother of a seventeenyear-old son. She researches and champions Indigenous efforts to restore the buffalo, has been a supporter of the Buffalo Treaty since 2015, and is a founding board member of the International Buffalo Relations Institute. Her films Two Worlds Colliding, Birth of a Family and nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up have screened around the world and won numerous awards, including the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2020. Her work has led to recognition from the Directors Guild of Canada, who awarded her with the Discovery Award in 2019. Her latest feature documentary is called Singing Back the Buffalo.