Production is underway on Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard’s Singing Back the Buffalo, a feature doc following Indigenous visionaries, scientists and communities who are “rematriating” the animal to the North American plains.

Saskatchewan-raised Hubbard (pictured; nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up) is the writer-director on the project, which is produced by Jason Ryle (Amplify) and George Hupka (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up), associate produced by Marie-Eve Marchand (Iniskim), and executive produced by Bonnie Thompson (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up).

The CBC original production is produced in association with APTN and with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Indigenous Screen Office and Telefilm Canada; with the assistance of the government of Alberta; and the participation of the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the Rogers Documentary Fund. Fiscal sponsorship has been provided by Redford Center.

Theatrical distribution is by Isuma Distribution International.

A one-hour version of the project will be broadcast on CBC’s The Nature of Things, while a feature version is bound for APTN and set for a festival launch in 2024.

Hubbard tells Playback Daily this is the most ambitious project she’s ever done, with a budget well over $1,000,000 and a North American scope requiring extensive wildlife filming. CBC’s The Nature of Things has supported the project since the development stage. Singing Back the Buffalo participated in the Hot Docs Deal Maker pitch meeting program in 2019 and was funded through Telefilm Canada’s Indigenous Stream.

“My other films have looked at stories from my specific community, and while I do follow some stories here, I also want to take audiences into other Indigenous communities who are doing really wonderful and sometimes difficult restoration efforts,” she says. “After travelling for years and hearing and witnessing the commitment that people have in support of the buffalo, I wanted to make a film that matched that epic scope.”

As part of the project, Hubbard filmed a team of five Indigenous women — Cree and Blackfoot — as they hiked to the backcountry of Banff National Park in Alberta earlier this month to visit a small repatriated buffalo herd five years after it was re-introduced to the region. Accompanied by an Indigenous women crew, the team aimed to reconnect to the territory and acknowledge the special relationship held between women and the buffalo.

The film explores the impact that massive campaigns of deliberate slaughter of buffalo had on Indigenous plains nations, who had depended on the animal for food, shelter, and spiritual sustenance. It also shows the full picture of what the buffalo means to Indigenous peoples.

When it comes to the subject, Hubbard is both an academic and activist, having obtained a master’s degree and PhD on buffalo stories. She says that in 2003, after being taken out on the land by elders, she resolved to develop her skills to make a film “that the buffalo deserve.”

“Being close — but not too close — to our relatives, the buffalo, have been among the most important moments of my life,” she says. “The herd is led by a grandmother, one of the oldest cows in the herd. So filming with them is often about winning the trust of that matriarch, so that she understands we aren’t a threat. They are very smart, and so in those moments where we are able to be close enough to film them, it feels like a privilege. I just feel very honoured.”

Hubbard says she originally tried to start a buffalo film in 2014 with a Blackfoot elder and filmmaker, the late Narcisse Blood. When he passed in 2015, she knew she needed to take some time.

“Now that we are in the midst of it all, I think of him often and wish he was here with us. So I’m just really grateful to be able to do this film with the team I have, to be welcomed into Indigenous communities, and to be a witness to our relatives’ return.”

Photography by Harvey Locke