After a scandal surfaced in 2023 allegedly revealing that Buffy Sainte-Marie fabricated her Indigenous identification, the musician and activist has been stripped of her Order of Canada appointment.
Information of the termination was reported on Friday, with Canadian authorities officers confirming that she was stripped of the award on January third. No official motive for the transfer has been given, nevertheless, with officers telling The Toronto Star that they do “not touch upon the specifics of termination circumstances.”
Sainte-Marie has been an icon around the globe because the Sixties for her music, Indigenous trend, and outspoken help for indigenous lives and affairs. However a bombshell report by the Canadian Broadcasting Company in 2023 seemingly revealed that, opposite to official biographical data — which claimed she was born on the Piapot Cree First Nations Reserve in Saskatchewan — she was truly born to white dad and mom in Massachusetts, and should have falsely invented her indigenous heritage.
This revelation was seemingly corroborated by marriage licenses, census information, a life insurance coverage coverage, and interviews, however Sainte-Marie pushed again in opposition to the allegations. In a press release launched forward of CBC’s report in 2023, she mentioned “I don’t know the place I’m from or who my delivery dad and mom have been, and I’ll by no means know,” and that she stays “pleased with my Indigenous-American identification.”
Contemplating her stature — and her respectable advocacy for Indigenous rights at varied factors — the talk has been contentious. Some indigenous artists and activists have expressed disappointment in her, with some even calling for her awards to be stripped. Others, like her adoptive Piapot household, have stood by her, whereas main music establishments such because the Juno Awards and the Canadian Songwriters Corridor of Fame have to this point avoided revoking her main honors.
Nonetheless, the lack of her Order of Canada appointment comes as an exceptionally uncommon motion. Because the award was created in 1967, greater than 7,600 people have obtained it; solely eight have had it revoked.
Following the discharge of CBC’s report, Sainte-Marie eliminated express claims of being Cree from her web site. Shortly earlier than the report was made public, she introduced her retirement from live performances.
