Singer, songwriter and political activist Buffy Sainte-Marie entertained a crowd of more than 300 people at the First Nations University of Canada’s Regina campus last night.
She was there to talk about the lost identity of North America’s Indigenous people.
Her speech was called “Detoxifying Aboriginal Self-Identity”.
She touched on many things, including the distorted view of Native Americans taught by generations of white teachers.
Sainte-Marie says a lot of what has been written, taught and said about Aboriginal people is not true.
She says it was European settlers who attempted to educate and inform young minds about Indigenous people.
Sainte-Marie also praised the efforts of the Idle No More movement, drawing cheers and applause.
“We got it going on now. This is good, this is real people talking about real things. Bill C-45 is hundreds of pages long and written in “lawyerese”. That ought to be illegal right there. Any of you should be able to read that bill right there and understand it.”
Sainte-Marie was born on the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan and has been a political activist for most of her 72 years.
She is also an accomplished singer/songwriter.
Artists like Elvis Presley, Donavan, Joe Cocker and more have covered her songs.
One of the most notable is “Up Where We Belong”, which won an Academy Award.
She is still touring and the story of her life is now a biography called, “It’s My Way”, written by Blair Stonechild, the head of Indigenous Studies at the First Nations University.