I’m full blooded Indigenous … I was born into my family, I have a status card, I grew up in my home community and my first language is Ojibway-Cree … I’m a brown skinned darked hair Indian … the first 12 years of my life, all I ever knew was my Indigenous culture, family and language.
The whole Buffy Sainte-Marie fiasco is not so much about who can identify, who should say what or who claim identity and how it should be accepted or rejected by anyone.
The biggest issue I have with this is … she lied and continues to lie. If she were more honest and forthcoming about who she really is and why she did what she did … everything would be more acceptable and we could continue to respect the work that she has created.
The questions surrounding all of this is a lot more difficult to answer when millions of dollars of awards, legal issues, and entertainment income are at stake.
I’m absolutely and completely non-Indingenous and I agree 100%.
Making a claim based on her adoption by the Piapot family is fine. My limited understanding as an outsider who only reads stuff is that the adoption confers legitimate and legal membership as judged by custom. The rest? Not so much.
Should her awards be rescinded? Maybe, but probably not. After all, those awards all came after her adoption and far greater liars have not been banished.
Even if the original adoption was due to a lie? Like I wonder if they would have adopted her if they knew her story was made up?
I didn’t consider that. I don’t know. The family and community seems to be standing behind the adoption, so I guess I’m not really willing form a strong opinion.
It’s not so much about her identity or who identifies her … it’s about her dishonesty about it all.
If she had come out from the start or early on in her career and told everyone who she really was … everything would so much easier to understand and accept. Instead, being honest about her background would have threatened her career especially early on which is why she had all the incentive to continue to be dishonest and hide her past.
Her dishonesty continued later on and she kept changing her story as new revelations came to light … first she was a foster child, then a forgotten child, now an illegitimate child.
I honestly like Buffy, her art and everything she’s done for Indigenous people … now I can’t accept anything she is attached to any more … if she had been more honest about who she was … and if she were more honest now … I would have an easier time respecting and maybe accepting what she did.
Instead, she continues to be dishonest and that is not acceptable.