Featured image: Tasha Hubbard, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, 2019 (still)
The images in Hubbard’s film are nothing short of visual sovereignty, to borrow a term from Jolene Rickard. Beautiful shots of the land, Saskatchewan’s famous open sky and horses running on the horizon form the majority of Hubbard’s film. This is truly Creator’s land, claimed for Cree people. Alongside joyful depictions of Native boyhoods, prairie lands become a space for Cree boys to know they are loved, protected and supported. Not since Alanis Obomsawin’s 1993 Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance has a film affected me in such a profound way. Hubbard’s film captures a movement. It showcases the community that is present and active around Colten’s family. The film is a statement from the family, a call to action from the community in Saskatchewan and beyond: nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up refuses any other framing or inference.
Jas M. Morgan 