Tasha Hubbard facts for kids

Tasha Hubbard is a talented Canadian filmmaker and educator. She is a member of the First Nations and Cree people. Tasha lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She makes documentaries that explore important topics about Indigenous rights in Canada.

Her films include Two Worlds Colliding, which won an award in 2004. This short film was about a sad event called the Saskatoon freezing deaths. She also made Birth of a Family in 2017. This longer film tells the story of four siblings who were separated during a time known as Canada's Sixties Scoop. In 2019, Tasha released nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up. This film won awards at the Hot Docs and DOXA Documentary festivals. It looks at the death of a young Cree man named Colten Boushie and the trial that followed.

Tasha's Family Story

Tasha Hubbard was born in 1973. Her birth name was Carrie Alaine Pinay. Her biological mother was a young Saulteaux, Métis, and Cree woman. Tasha's mother, as well as her parents and grandparents, and Tasha's Cree and Nakota father, all went to residential schools. These schools were often far from home and tried to make Indigenous children forget their culture.

Because her mother had little support, Tasha was adopted through a program called Saskatchewan Adopt Indian Metis (AIM). This program was part of the Sixties Scoop. The Sixties Scoop was a time when many Indigenous children were taken from their families and adopted by non-Indigenous families.

Tasha grew up on a farm near Avonlea, Saskatchewan. Her adoptive parents were very supportive. When Tasha was 14, her adoptive mother asked if she wanted to find her birth family. They searched for almost two years without luck. Then, they hired a Cree lawyer who found Tasha's birth mother in just two weeks! It turned out her birth mother was a friend of her biological father.

Tasha met her birth mother shortly after her sixteenth birthday. She met her father a few weeks later. Over time, she reunited with all ten of her siblings. She met her last sister when she was twenty-two years old.

Her Amazing Films

Two Worlds Colliding (2004)

Two Worlds Colliding is a documentary from 2004. It follows the story of Darrell Night, an Indigenous man. Police left him in a cold field outside Saskatoon in January 2000, when it was -20°C. The film looks into the "freezing deaths" of Indigenous people in the early 2000s. It shows how these events led to a lot of distrust and fear of the police in Saskatchewan.

The film was first shown at ImagineNATIVE in 2004. It won a Gemini Canada Award. Two Worlds Colliding also won the Golden Sheaf Award - Aboriginal at the 2005 Yorkton Film Festival.

"7 Minutes" (2016)

This short documentary also won an award. It received the Golden Sheaf Award for Short Subject (Non-Fiction) at the 2016 Yorkton Film Festival.

Birth of a Family (2017)

Tasha Hubbard's own experiences helped her decide to make Birth of a Family. This film is about four First Nations siblings reuniting. They were separated as part of the Sixties Scoop. One of the siblings, Betty Ann Adam, is a journalist. She also helped write the film.

Betty Ann had been encouraged to share her reunion story by Marie Wilson. Marie was a commissioner with Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This commission worked to learn about the history and impacts of residential schools. Betty Ann had known Tasha for over ten years and asked her to make the film.

The documentary was nominated for an award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in 2017. It also won the 2017 EIFF Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. It received a Special Jury Prize at the 18th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (2019)

nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up is a 2019 documentary. It shares Tasha Hubbard's personal thoughts on the death of Colten Boushie. Colten was a young Cree man. The film follows the trial and what happened afterward. This case caused a lot of discussion across Canada.

While following the case, Tasha highlights unfairness in the Canadian legal system. She also looks at the history of colonialism on the Prairies. The film brings attention to anti-Indigenous racism in Canada. It shows the efforts of Colten Boushie's family to find justice.

The film won the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Toronto's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. It also won the Colin Low Award for Canadian Documentary at Vancouver's DOXA Documentary Film Festival. In addition, this film won the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Multicultural (Over 30 Minutes) at the 2020 Yorkton Film Festival.