Submitted photo. A production still from “Singing Back the Buffalo.” Kayla MacInnis Local Journalism Initiative Reporter IndigiNews As her documentary Singing Back the Buffalo opens, Tasha Hubbard stands in a ribbon skirt beneath a pink sky in the windy grasslands of the Qu’Appelle Valley.
“When I was a little girl, I didn’t know what it meant to be a Cree person,” she begins. “I was raised away by a farming family and the only time I felt connected was when we would come to the Qu’Appelle Valley. I’d stare at the empty hills and imagine my ancestors and the massive herds of buffalo moving across the land.
” In her late teens, Hubbard reunited with her birth family, yet an unshakeable sense of incompleteness lingered. It wasn’t until age 30 that Hubbard’s journey took a transformative turn. While attending a wedding, she joined a group that left the reception to explore a recently unearthed rock.
“It was a big rock in the shape of a buffalo. It had this really beautiful round medicine bowl at its nose. You just felt its energy.
I felt so emotional. We talked about it for a while, and then they said we should sing for our Grandfather, so we sang an honour song for it,” Hubbard shared in an interview. “For a moment we thought it sang back.
” After that experience, Hubbard’s interest in the buffalo, and their shared history with her Cree ancestors grew. “That day I started my buffalo journey,” said the acclaimed filmmaker. She’s spent 21 sum.
