Buffy Sainte-Marie Loses Order of Canada After Indigenous Ancestry Investigation

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The Canadian-American musician Buffy Sainte-Marie has had her Order of Canada revoked – this is the highest honor a Canadian citizen can receive.

It has been announced that the membership of Buffy Sainte-Marie in the Order of Canada was ended, following an Ordinance signed by the Governor General on January 3, 2025, as per a notice published on February 8th in the Canada Gazette, the government’s official journal.”

This version maintains the same information but presents it in a more natural and easy-to-read format. It also clarifies that the membership was terminated rather than stating that the appointment was terminated (since membership is typically conferred by an appointment).

There was no explanation provided for the decision, but it was made official through Ken MacKillop, the secretary general of the Order of Canada. This action seems to be connected to a 2023 investigation by CBC’s The Fifth Estate, which suggested that Sainte-Marie had been deceiving her identity as Native throughout her 60-year career.

The documentary suggested that the singer-songwriter’s white adoptive parents might actually be her birth parents. However, Sainte-Marie, who is recognized as the first Native American to win an Academy Award, contested the doubts about her heritage brought up in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) show.

In a long statement issued after the broadcast of the CBC investigation, Sainte-Marie claimed that the network had used a fabricated story about her, which was concocted by her childhood abuser and brother, Alan, as well as two members of her distant family whom she’s never met. Furthermore, the singer-songwriter stated that the ‘The Fifth Estate’ program had utilized a birth certificate belonging to her that she had never previously come across.

1982 saw Sainte-Marie winning an Oscar for Best Original Song, which she shared with her collaborators Will Jennings and Jack Nitzsche, for their composition “Up Where We Belong,” contributing to the soundtrack of the film “An Officer and a Gentleman“.

Sainte-Marie herself pointed out that discovering details about her early life was challenging due to not being able to locate her birth parents and other background information. The Fifth Estate program suggested they discovered articles labeling Sainte-Marie as variously Algonquin, Mi’kmaq, and Cree at different times.

Her officially documented life story reveals that she was born on Cree territory within the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in 1941, forcibly separated from her original family, and subsequently adopted by a white American family named Sainte-Maries, under the infamous government program called the Sixties Scoop.

However, the CBC program asserted they had discovered a document claimed to be Sainte-Marie’s birth certificate, indicating she was born in 1941 in Stoneham, Massachusetts. This certificate identified Albert and Winifred Santamaria as her adoptive parents, who were listed as white on the document.

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According to the CBC show, they had uncovered a supposed birth certificate for Sainte-Marie, stating she was born in 1941 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, and listing Albert and Winifred Santamaria as her adoptive parents, who were recorded as white.

The Hollywood Reporter contacted Sainte-Marie’s representatives for a direct response regarding the revocation of the Order of Canada, however, no reply has been received so far.

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2025-02-10 21:24