Singing Back the Buffalo
Singing Back the Buffalo is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Tasha Hubbard and released in 2024. The film profiles indigenous efforts to restore the buffalo to the North American plains ecosystem after the animals were driven to near extinction.
The film follows the path of the buffalo during the spring, summer and fall of 2022, across the Northern Plains of Canada and the United States.
Production
In 2016, Hubbard was invited to film a historic transfer of buffalo, which were returned from Elk Island National Park to their original territory on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. However, she put the project on pause following the controversial death of Colten Boushie, and turned her attention to making Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, her film about the Boushie incident which was released in 2019.Hubbard was then approached to make other films about similar incidents of anti-indigenous violence, but returned to Singing Back the Buffalo after being convinced by her family that she needed to take a break from telling difficult stories and make a film that brought her joy. She resumed production on the film in 2022.
Release
The film premiered at the 2024 Big Sky [Documentary Film Festival], and had its Canadian premiere at the 2024 Hot Docs [Canadian International Documentary Festival].A shorter edit of the film was broadcast by CBC Television in March 2025 as an episode of The Nature of Things.