Buffy Sainte-Marie was stripped Friday of her Polaris Music Prizes, Juno Awards and Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction, as the fallout continues from an investigation that raised questions about her Indigenous ancestry and Canadian citizenship.
The Polaris Music Prize is rescinding two awards given to Buffy Sainte-Marie, the Canadian music organization announced in a statement on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), which administers the Juno Awards and Canadian Music Hall of Fame, said it was doing the same because Sainte-Marie doesn’t meet its eligibility requirements.
Representatives for Sainte-Marie did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment.
CARAS said its decision “is not a reflection of Ms. Sainte-Marie’s artistic contributions but ensures that CARAS celebrates and honours artists who meet the criteria. While this decision aligns with longstanding criteria, we acknowledge the impact it may have.”
Sainte-Marie has won five Juno Awards, four of which were in Indigenous categories. She also received the Juno Humanitarian Award in 2017.
Sainte-Marie is also the second artist to be stripped of a Juno. In 1990, the duo Milli Vanilli were stripped of their best international album of the year prize after it was discovered that they did not sing any of the songs on their breakthrough album.
In a separate statement, the Polaris Music Prize said that Sainte-Marie is not a Canadian citizen, and therefore does not meet the prize’s criteria. Sainte-Marie, 82, recently confirmed that she is an American citizen, who holds a U.S. passport.
The Polaris Music Prize recognizes the best Canadian album of the year, judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration of genre or record sales. Sainte-Marie was awarded the prize in 2015 for her album “Power In The Blood.” In 2020, her 1964 debut album “It’s My Way!” was awarded the Polaris Heritage Prize, which recognizes classic Canadian albums.
Both awards will be rescinded.
“We understand that not all Indigenous people have access to government-issued paperwork, and we acknowledge that this does not diminish their identity or connection to their communities and should not impact their ability to be nominated for the Polaris Music Prize,” the statement said.
Earlier this month, after she was stripped of her Order of Canada, Sainte-Marie told the Canadian Press that she “made it completely clear” she was not Canadian to Rideau Hall, which bestowed the national order on her in 1997, and to former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau when he invited her to perform for Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.
In March, Rideau Hall confirmed that it terminated two jubilee medals given to Sainte-Marie in 2002 and 2012. Both were associated with her membership to the Order of Canada, which was awarded in 1997 and cancelled on Jan. 3 of this year. Sainte-Marie was also stripped the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the queen’s ascension to the throne, as well as the Diamond Jubilee medal presented for the 60th anniversary, the government said.
Rideau Hall declined to give a reason for their decision, saying they do not comment on the specifics of termination cases.
Sainte-Marie first emerged as a musician in the 1960s, steeping her artistry and her activism in Indigenous culture and politics. A Juno- and Oscar-winning artist, she has long been considered one of Canada’s most acclaimed songwriters, and was eventually inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
Sainte-Marie has long described herself as Indigenous.
However, questions about Sainte-Marie’s heritage emerged in 2023, when a CBC investigation discovered that Sainte-Marie’s birth certificate stated that she was born in Massachusetts to white parents. Her family members, including Sainte-Marie’s younger sister, also told CBC that Sainte-Marie was not adopted and does not have Indigenous ancestry.
The investigation contradicted Sainte-Marie’s 2018 biography, in which she claimed she was “probably” born on the Piapot 75 reserve in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada, to Cree parents. She also stated that at the age of two or three, she was taken from her parents as part of the Sixties Scoop.
Following the investigation, Sainte-Marie said she had never lied about her identity. She also alleged that the CBC investigation was full of mistakes and omissions, calling the story an attack on her character, life and legacy.
“Being an ‘Indian’ has little to do with sperm tracking and colonial record keeping,” Sainte-Marie wrote in a statement shared in Nov. 2023. ”(I)t has to do with community, culture, knowledge, teachings, who claims you, who you love, who loves you and who’s your family.”
She also said that it was common for birth certificates to be “created” after Indigenous children were adopted or taken away from their families. She said she used a birth certificate throughout her life that was the only document she had, without knowing if it was real.
The controversy, which raises complicated questions about Indigeneity and identity, has sparked a heated debate among Indigenous communities and those within the Canadian music world.
Karmen Omeasoo, an Indigenous artist who performs under the name HellnbacK, was nominated for a Juno the same year as Sainte-Marie as part of the hip-hop group Team Rezofficial. In 2023, he told the Canadian Press that the revelations “have shaken him to his core.”
“I’m feeling very duped” he said at the time. “Like something was taken from me. Something was taken from all these other artists.”
In 2023, author Michelle Good, from Red Pheasant Cree Nation, wrote in the Star, “Regardless of her possible deception, Buffy Sainte-Marie had a profound effect on the way non-Indigenous people perceive and relate to Indigenous people.”
“I’m not saying these things to defend Buffy, but rather to recognize that we don’t have to disbelieve or discredit our experiences with her and what she gave us,” Good wrote. “Buffy will never again be the person she was to us for all these years, but what she has given us does not just dissolve. Those are our feelings, our ways of expression. My wish is that we can comfort and be comforted by that.”
Earlier this month, in response to the news that she had been stripped of her Order of Canada, Sainte-Marie released a statement that said: “my Cree family adopted me forever and this will never change.”
“I’ve never treated my citizenship as a secret and most of my friends and relatives in Canada have known I’m American, and it’s never been an issue,” she wrote. “Although it’s true that I’ve never been certain of where I was born, and did investigate the possibility that I may have been born in Canada, I still don’t know.”
“It was very lovely to host the medals for awhile, but I return them with a good heart.”
With files from Morgan Sevareid-Bocknek and the Canadian Press.
