Buffy Sainte-Marie calls Indigenous identity questions hurtful
CBC
Buffy Sainte-Marie, a musician known for decades of Indigenous activism, says she's always been honest that she doesn't know where she is from or who her birth parents are ahead of a CBC News report that raises questions about her claims to First Nations ancestry.
"I don't know where I'm from or who my birth parents were, and I will never know. Which is why to be questioned in this way today is painful," Sainte-Marie said Thursday in a statement.
"To those who question my truth, I say with love, I know who I am."
Sainte-Marie, who is in her early 80s, said she was contacted last month by CBC and called allegations about her identity "deeply hurtful."
The CBC's flagship investigative show, The Fifth Estate, is scheduled to air an episode titled Making an Icon on Friday, about Sainte-Marie. Her claims to Indigenous ancestry are being called into question by family members, and the investigation includes genealogical documentation and historical research.
The investigation will be available on cbcnews.ca, on The Fifth Estate's YouTube channel on Friday at 1 p.m. ET and on CBC TV and CBC Gem at 9 p.m.
Sainte-Marie also posted a video on social media addressing the upcoming episode, saying she has shared her story for 60 years. She called herself "a proud member of the Native community with deep roots in Canada."
"But there are also many things I don't know, which I've always been honest about. I don't know where I'm from, who my birth parents are or how I ended up a misfit in a typical white Christian New England home," she said in the video.
"I realized decades ago that I would never have the answers."
Sainte-Marie gained notoriety in the 1960s for her singing and songwriting, and her well-known songs have been covered by Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. She became renowned for her protest songs and appearances on Sesame Street.
She is credited with being the first Indigenous person to win an Oscar for best original song in 1982 for co-writing Up Where We Belong, the ballad from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.
Sainte-Marie has repeatedly spoken about her adoption, saying she is First Nations from Canada but was raised by Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, the latter who identified as part Mi'kmaq, in Massachusetts.
Her 2018 authorized biography says there's no official record of her birth. It says she was probably born Cree on Piapot, a First Nation in the Qu'Appelle Valley in Saskatchewan, in about 1940. Named Beverly, she was nicknamed Buffy in high school.
"To be born Cree in the 1940s in Canada was to be a person who was not always counted, at least not in a formal and legal fashion," the biography said. "Birth records from the time, particularly on reserves, were spotty, and there are countless reports of records being lost or destroyed."
Experts are constantly warning the public to be on guard for new and increasingly convincing scams, but police say the holiday shopping season is especially fraught with risk.
A surgeon who used to work at Flin Flon's hospital says residents in the northwestern Manitoba city have been left in a precarious situation after more than five years without general surgery services.
Moubarak Bokhit Ali's memories of his home country of Sudan are punctuated by flashes of violence.
The man behind the Moose Jaw health centre that has claimed “a 100 per cent success rate in stopping the progression and in restoring function of people with ALS” says a recent CBC story about his company is evidence that he is seen as “a direct threat to the ALS drug industry.”
The Neighbour to Neighbour Centre’s trans and non-binary grocery program, which offers free food and household products to community members once a month, began with a simple question: how do we get free menstrual products to trans people without being awkward?
Bill Van Vugt is living a life that's unlike most other people his age, and one which has seen him turn a longtime hobby into championship gold.
The provincial government is taking steps toward improving Alberta's lucrative sand and gravel industry.
As medical labs across Ontario remain understaffed, one medical association is calling on the province to expand labs’ capacity for student placements by funding positions to train them.
The year wrapping up means it's getting closer to tax season, and the federal Community Volunteer Income Tax Program will once again be offering free filing services for Islanders with modest incomes.
It's not so easy to remove a politician from office between elections in Canada.
Natasha Martin-Mitchell says creating art gives her a sense of calmness that acts as a medicine during stressful times.
Gabriel Vilardi scored twice and star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves in his first game back from injury to power the Jets to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday that snapped Winnipeg's three-game losing skid.
Alberta’s auditor general Doug Wylie says his office's budget will be $1.5 million short next fiscal year.