The Canadian Government has taken away Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Order of Canada award, as stated in the Canada Gazette on February 8.
Buffy became well-known back in the 1960s for her music and was honored with this award in 1997, later getting a higher title in 2017. But things got complicated when a CBC documentary and report from 2023 questioned her Indigenous roots. They found a birth certificate saying her parents were actually a white couple from Massachusetts, though she had always said she was born on the Piapot First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Buffy responded by sharing videos and written messages. “I have always struggled to answer questions about who I am,” she explained in November 2023. “For decades, I tried to find my birth parents and information about my background. Through that research what became clear, and what I’ve always been honest about: I don’t know where I’m from or who my birth parents are, and I will never know. Which is why, to be questioned in this way is painful, both for me, and for my two families I love so dearly.”
Fans often feel confused when stories like this come out because they challenge what we thought we knew.
