Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie is recognized and celebrated as one of the most important and impactful Indigenous artist of all time. Over the course of her six-decade career, Buffy has inspired multiple generations of musicians, artists and activists. The powerful, raw singer/songwriter with unmatched scope has steadfastly refused to be trapped in the patterns of the past or be entangled in the workings of the contemporary music industry. Since her groundbreaking debut album It’s My Way!(1964), the Cree singer-songwriter has been an informative advocate for Indigenous cultural awareness.

Her appearances on “Sesame Street” enriched public-access television with important subjects such as breast feeding, sibling rivalry, and Native American language and culture. When she agreed to take an acting role in the TV series, The Virginian, it was conditional that Indigenous roles be filled by Indigenous actors.

In addition to winning countless Canadian JUNO Awards and being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, she helped to found the Juno Awards category Music of Aboriginal Canada. Buffy was the first Indigenous person to take home an Academy Award as co-writer of “Up Where We Belong” in 1983 for Best Original Song from the film An Officer and a Gentleman, which also won Golden Globe and BAFTA honours. She has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame and received Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award.