Buffy Sainte-Marie criticized accusations that she faked her Native American ancestry and called the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s investigation “traumatizing and unfair.”
“This has been incredibly traumatic for me and unfair to everyone involved,” the Oscar winner said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.
Sainte-Marie’s comments come after the CBC published an investigative article titled “Making an Icon,” which featured some of the folk singer’s relatives and a birth certificate she said she had never seen before. .
Following the release of the feature, Sainte-Marie has been called a “pretender,” a term coined for people who pretend to have indigenous ancestry.
“The attack on my character is full of errors and omissions,” he said. “While I won’t stoop to responding to every false accusation, I think it’s important to clarify two things.”
Sainte-Marie, 82, said the “central evidence” in the CBC story came from a “fabricated” story by her brother Alan, who she claims sexually abused her.
Following the release of the feature, Sainte-Marie has been called a “pretender,” a term coined for people who pretend to have indigenous ancestry.MediaPunch/BACKGRID
“It hurts me deeply to discover that my estranged family grew up scared of me and thinking these lies because of a letter I sent meant to protect me from further abuse from my brother,” she said.
Sainte-Marie first rose to fame in the 1960s for her folk music, playing music festivals showcasing her Cree heritage, and was eventually named Billboard’s Top New Artist before appearing on Sesame Street in the 1960s. 1970, winning numerous awards, including an Oscar in 1983.
Sainte-Marie with the International Emmy Award for “Artistic Programming” for her Canadian program “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On” on November 20, 2023 in New York.PETER FOLEY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
She was the first Indigenous person to win the prestigious award, after co-writing the song “Up Where We Belong” for the film “An Officer and a Gentleman.”
Sainte-Marie’s second complaint regarding the article was based on a birth certificate CBC obtained that stated she was not born in Canada, but in Stoneham, Massachusetts.
“It was quite shocking for me to hear a municipal employee say that she had 100% confidence in its authenticity. I never knew if my birth certificate was real,” she said. “I used it because it was the only document I had in my entire life.”
Sainte-Marie later claimed that he had spent years learning about his past through his family and through his own research, but admitted that he could not understand exactly where it came from. MediaPunch / BACKGRID
While she admitted not knowing the exact truth of her past, Sainte-Marie says she learned about her past through her mother, who also had indigenous heritage, and taught her that she was born on a Piapot Cree reservation in Canada before being adopted by the Santamaría family near Boston, Mass.
He then claimed that he had spent years learning about his past through his family and through his own research, but admitted that he could not understand exactly where it came from.
“For decades, I tried to find my biological parents and information about my background,” he said. “Through that investigation it became clear what I have always been honest about: I don’t know where I’m from or who my biological parents are, and I never will.”
“The most important thing is that this is my life, I am not a piece of paper. “I am a product of my families and all my experiences in this world.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn