Sunday, September 8th, 7:30pm at the Latchis Theater
Join Sandglass Theater and Latchis Arts for this very special screening of “Iniskim- Return of the Buffalo”, an intercultural artistic response to the return of the buffalo, as wild animals, to Western North America.
Short Description
Iniskim- Return of the Buffalo is a cinematic wonder and an incredible opportunity to learn about Indigenous ways of knowing. We watch as a group of puppeteers are transformed by their experience of ‘being buffalo’ at night under the stars. Amethyst First Rider says to the puppeteers, “You are the buffalo. With each movement of your hands, each connection, each dream, you’re creating energy and they become a part of you.”
Long Description
In 2017 history was made when bison were reintroduced to Banff National Park where they continue to roam free today. This project was part of the historic Buffalo Treaty that now has over 40 First Nation signatories, meaning they are part of the movement to bring buffalo back to their ancestral lands.
Leroy LIttle Bear and Amethyst First Rider are leading this movement and since Amethyst is first and foremost an artist, she wanted to celebrate the return of the buffalo through art. Soon into Amethyst’s quest she met master puppeteer, Pete Balkwill. At the time Pete and his collaborators were working with sculptural lantern puppets that lent themselves to night time performances on the land. Amethyst and Leroy were immediately intrigued. A performance about buffalo at night under the stars!
The 39-minute documentary film about their deep collaborative journey is structured around a ‘Masterclass’ on Plains Indian ways of knowing. We see the puppeteers with Leroy and Amethyst, absorbing their knowledge and then integrating it into the creation of both the puppets and the theatrical production.
Amethyst says, ‘with each movement of your hands, each dream, you are the buffalo. You become the buffalo’.
It’s all about relationships.
‘This is something we heard over and over from Amethyst and Leroy. It recalibrated how we worked as artists, how we conducted ourselves as an artistic community, and even how we perceived our relationship to our audiences. We actually felt this on an energetic level because we were performing on the land’. – Nan Balkwill
We are thrilled to welcome David Lane, collaborating puppeteer for this project, for a special talk back about the process.