Iniskim – Return of the Buffalo FILM

Wow, Puppets! An Intercultural Interrogative Process of Collaboration in
INISKIM: Return of the Buffalo

An Essay by Joelle Mendoza

INISKIM begins with the land, the site where the buffalo return, using aerial cinematography and sweeping images of the river basin, mountains, prairies, medicine wheel, and expansive wide shots of the sky. The opening sequence captures the ecosystem’s relationships—the bird’s sonic echoes, the flow of water, the strides of the buffalo against the wind, the movement of clouds, and the sounds of thunder with Amethyst First Rider’s voiceover. Amethyst First Rider (Kainaiwa-Blackfoot Confederacy) expressed that there was a collective inquiry in her community: “How can we celebrate the buffalo?” INISKIM is a film that illustrates how illuminated buffalo puppets become conduits for collective imagination and collaborative storytelling.

For me, this opening served as a visual grounding or “land acknowledgement”—with recognition of the environment—as well as an affirmation of the history, culture, and language of the original Indigenous inhabitants who are stewards of the land. The tribes of this area acknowledge the reciprocity of stories, specifically how the buffalo are vital characters to their stories and how stories preserve interconnected culture and tradition. First Rider explains, “These are stories that are birthrights for our children to hear. They will always know who they are from the stories.” Seeing two large lantern buffalo puppets, with red ribbon skirts peeking out at their feet, enter into the frame against a Western landscape with thunder roaring is a surreal and unexpected sight. Following the title card, an intertitle provides cultural context for the film, stating: “The Buffalo Treaty was first signed in 2013 on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana.”

While the film does not focus on the treaty’s details, this monumental treaty inspired the puppeteering partnership. However, contrary to the film, according to the National Parks Services, The Buffalo Treaty: A Treaty of Cooperation, Renewal and Restoration was signed on September 23, 2014, on the Blackfeet territory in Montana, among thirteen nations from eight reservations (National Park Service, 2017: 1). This treaty is the first international agreement signed between sovereign Indigenous nations without involving the governments of the United States or Canada. This intertribal and cross-border treaty to preserve and restore ecosystems, along with cultural survivance, called for celebration.

Directed by Leanne Allison and Peter Balkwill, this film documents the collective forces of storytelling by weaving oral traditions, music, dance, puppetry, and performance together with Indigenous tribal stewardship from Amethyst First Rider and Leroy Little Bear, along with the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry, producers Necessary Journeys, and International Buffalo Relations. What I appreciated most as a viewer was how the film held my hand through the process of making, rather than simply documenting the polished “final” product or performance.“The land does not forget,” Lorne Duquette (Mistawasis Nehiyawak) reminds us. Throughout the film, there is the insistent presence of the landscape, with captivating sequences of panning and zooming out/in of establishing place and connectivity of the buffalo and community relations.

While a puppet show didn’t seem like the most obvious way to celebrate the return of the buffalo, the film illustrates how a puppet ensemble and tribal members found partnership in shared and learned values and methods. Seated in the living room circle of community collaborators, Leroy Little Bear (Blackfeet) explains that:

Most of us, you wake up in the morning, you think that’s reality. But what you’re waking up to is the human interpretation of the real reality. In Blackfoot thought, in Cree thought and so on, there’s nothing that’s inanimate, because everything that exists is really a combination of different forces, energy waves […]

In puppetry, there’s a method and approach of understanding that objects can be animated forces and energy for storytelling. Hence, I’ve seen the potential for paper, glue, and string to cultivate a whole puppet universe. Members of the puppet ensemble shared their ongoing process of learning throughout this performance project and drew parallels between working in a collective ensemble to the interconnectivity of the buffalo ecosystem.  

Reflecting on how this film focuses on process, it is important to point out the various spaces/places and methods of storytelling the film includes. For both the treaty and performance to exist, there was organizing, both formal and informal. Thus, the film shows the historical day of the signing of the treaty in Montana, highlighting some tribal leaders’ reflections. Also, the film includes informal organizing in living rooms, with elders like Little Bear and First Rider sharing experiences. There is oral storytelling about Napi, a trickster and teacher in Blackfeet culture, along with an emphasis on values that recognize all relations. Peter Balkwill also provides a behind-the-scenes puppet studio tour where he speaks to the context of the puppet company as he plays with accumulated studio puppets, including a Jesus puppet that talks to a pig rod puppet. The film also used reenactments to evoke oral traditions with voiceover narrations.

There are direct letter excerpts taken from Wes Olson, aka Grandfather Buffalo, who stayed and watched over the buffalo during their first winter in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. First Rider shares her experience hearing these stories and their impacts. The excerpts are read aloud with impressionistic reenactments. Olson describes hearing

a cheerful tinkling tiny bell like crystalline tinkling, unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. And then one of the buffalo shifted, and I heard it again. I could see that each of the individual strands of hair in her beard had a tiny icicle frozen at the end of it. Dozens of crystals swayed from side to side and suddenly the silence of the valley erupted into a chorus of song. 

The film transitions from Olson’s letter voiceover to Lorne Duquette’s voice serving as  storyteller at the live-audience performance. There is also a visual transition from the reenactment to a close-up of a jingle dancer’s skirt swaying with sound during a night performance. This was a tangible representation of how observations (the letters) transmute to shared knowledge (communal listening) and then to creative expression (jingle dance) throughout time, space, and generational knowledge/storytelling.

The film also spotlighted communal puppet-building and rehearsal space. The film wove scenes and time lapses of the object’s construction, from reeds and fabric on the floor to skeletal structures to giant buffalo. I appreciated the ways the film showed the process of playing through rehearsals and mistakes, along with the “freak-out stages.” Included with this was the practice and performance of a drum circle with and without a human audience and an explanation of the distinctions between ceremonial and powwow songs. I could relate to the ways language emerges in play and rehearsal. There was inclusion of how the ensemble used words like “floaty” or “handy-offy” and came up with phrases to keep the pace like “one, two, change the rule,” as well as moments of humorous frustration. These are all understood as part of the process.  

The film adopts a nonlinear approach, with no established beginning, climax, or end. Even though it has a beginning and an end, the editing of the film weaves time more as a braided narrative. INISKIM recognizes itself as a continuum, with an acknowledgement that there was a long history, ongoing cultural remembering, and context to this celebration. Thus, the film weaves interviews, process, history, and rehearsals with people’s stories, music, and dance, although the latter part of the film does share more footage of the puppets at night, specifically with a live audience in performance.

INISKIM illuminates the celebration of collaboration and partnership, which centers process, primarily focused on the how and why of a project. The “how” is achieved with lots of hard work and respectful “partnership” between puppeteers, tribe, and community. The “why” is outlined in The Buffalo Treaty, which highlights the cultural and environmental significance and the celebration of the buffalo’s return. One of the final images was of the puppet ensemble with tribal members in a round dance with a giant illuminated buffalo in the center—wow, just wow.