Buffy Sainte-Marie

Sainte-Marie, Buffy
Buffy (Beverly) Sainte-Marie. Singer-songwriter, guitarist, mouth-bow player, artist, teacher, b Piapot Reserve, Craven, near Regina, 20 Feb 1941 or 1942, of Cree parents; BA (Massachusetts) 1963; PhD (Massachusetts) 1983; honorary LLD (Regina) 1996, hon LLD (Carleton) 2008, hon D MUS (U of Western Ont) 2009. Orphaned when a few months old, she was adopted by a part-Mi'kmaq family and raised in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Buffy Sainte-Marie later was adopted according to tribal customs on the Piapot Reserve by a Cree family related to her natural parents. At 17 she took up the guitar, and by her early twenties she had become an important figure in Greenwich Village (New York) folk music circles. She has been noted for her commitment to social causes, especially those of the Native peoples of North America.

Watch Buffy Sainte-Marie sing her song "Until it's Time for You to Go" on YouTube.com.

Video not working? Report a broken link.
In her travels internationally, for many years from a home in Hawaii, Sainte-Marie returned frequently to Canada. Her earliest Canadian performances included an appearance at the 1964 Mariposa Folk Festival. She also sang at Expo 67 and in 1977 before Queen Elizabeth II at the Silver Jubilee celebrations in Ottawa. She appeared in concert halls (Massey Hall, NAC), at folk festivals, performed at Harbourfront (for Canada Day in 1984 and WOMAD in 1988), and sang frequently for Native communities and to benefit Native organizations. Sainte-Marie appeared on several CBC radio and TV shows, including a Superspecial in 1978, Pascan: Pow Wow in 1982, and The Many Moods of Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1983. She also was seen 1975-81 in Canada as a regular performer on the (US) NET network's children's show, Sesame Street. Her 1996 variety special Up Where We Belong won her a Gemini Award.

Buffy Sainte-Marie's songs range from the ballad 'Until It's Time for You to Go' (a minor hit in 1972 for Elvis Presley and also recorded by Cher, Neil Diamond, Claude Gauthier, Robert Goulet, Juliette, Cleo Laine, Vera Lynn, Carmen McRae, Odetta, Ginette Reno, Barbra Streisand, and many others) to such protest songs as 'The Universal Soldier' (written at Toronto's Purple Onion coffeehouse and a hit as recorded by Donovan, the song was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005). Her songs about the native peoples include 'Native North American,' 'Now That the Buffalo's Gone,' 'Soldier Blue,' and 'My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying.' Many are included in The Buffy Sainte-Marie Song Book (Belwin Mills/Grosset & Dunlap 1971). A later effort, 'Up Where We Belong,' written with her husband, the record producer Jack Nitzsche, and with Will Jennings, was heard in the US film An Officer and a Gentleman and won an Oscar award in 1983 for best song. A duet version by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes was a major hit in 1982.

Sainte-Marie's own recordings, in a voice distinguished by a striking vibrato, include 12 LPs 1964-73 for Vanguard (including the popular Little Wheel Spin and Spin, VSD-79211, and the compilation Native North-American Child: an Odyssey, VSD-79340,which brought together her songs on Native subjects), two 1974-5 for MCA, and one in 1976 for ABC. The song 'Mister Can't See You' was popular in 1972. The two volumes of Vanguard's The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie were reissued together on CD (VCD-3/4) in 1987. In the course of her LPs for Vanguard Sainte-Marie moved away from the folk idiom: I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again (1968) was in a country style and Illuminations (1970) introduced the electronics that presaged her use of synthesizers in concert during the 1980s. After a lengthy absence from recording, Sainte-Marie released the album Coincidence and Likely Stories (0946 3 21920 2 8 Ensign) in 1992. This album, which contained both electronic backings and traditional Aboriginal chants, won a Best International Artist award from France. Up Where We Belong (0 7243 835059 2 0 EMI), a collection of new and previously recorded tunes, followed in 1996; combining elements of pop, protest, and powwow music in an 'unplugged' style, it received the Best Music of Aboriginal Canada Juno in 1997.

In the 1990s, Sainte-Marie was heard in concert often in Canada, touring First Nations reserves and towns in Western Canada and Ontario. She sang with the Regina Symphony Orchestra under John Kim Bell, and with the NACO, and at festivals, including at Elora (1997) and the Ottawa Folk Festival (2002). She performed also in Sweden, Denmark, and France.

Sainte-Marie taught music and art at the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College; York University; Evergreen State College, Washington; and the Institute for American Indian Arts, New Mexico. She founded the Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education in 1969; her Cradleboard Teaching Project connects classes of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children on-line. She was a spokesperson for UNESCO, and in 1997 was named the Native American Philanthropist of the Year. She became an Officer in the Order of Canada in 1997, and was awarded the Queen's Jubilee Medal in 2002. She received lifetime achievement awards from the Saskatchewan Recording Industry Association (1994), CARAS (Juno, 1995), the American Indian College Fund (1998), and the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (1999). As a painter, she exhibited her work in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Toronto, and Santa Fe.

Writings
'Science, creativity and leadership,' Winds of Change Magazine, spring 2001 <filmography>

Buffy Sainte Marie: Up Where We Belong. 1996. CBC Home Video; A1107 Astral Video</filmography>

Author Betty Nygaard King

Bibliography

Hale, Barrie. 'The rebirth of Buffy Sainte-Marie,' The Canadian, 14 Jan 1978

See, Lisa. 'Beginnings: Buffy Sainte-Marie,' Today, 7 Feb 1981

Kelly, M.J. 'Halfway around the world for a free concert Buffy comes back to Toronto,' Toronto Globe and Mail, 22 Dec 1986

Jung, Daryl. 'Politics temper tunes of the heart,' Toronto Now, 14-20 Apr 1988

McLean, Steve. 'Buffy Sainte-Marie back with new album after 16 years,' RPM, 4 Apr 1992

Ross, Val. 'Buffy's sound and light show,' Toronto Globe and Mail, 19 May 1995

Contemporary Canadian Musicians Issue 2 (Toronto 1998)

Wright-McLeod, Brian. The Encyclopedia of Native Music (Tucson, Arizona 2005)

Links to Other Sites
Buffy Sainte-Marie
The website for the multitalented singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. Includes a profile, discography, audio clips from selected recordings, and more.

Buffy Sainte-Marie
A profile of Buffy Sainte-Marie from the website for the Nihewan Foundation.

Up where she belongs
Canadian legend Buffy Sainte-Marie reflects on a storied career in music in this CBC interview.

Western Canadian Music Awards
The website for the Western Canadian Music Alliance, which promotes the best in western Canadian music. Features the latest news about their annual awards gala. For a listing of previous winners and Hall of Fame inductees, click on the "Awards" link.

Until It's Time For You To Go
Watch Buffy Sainte-Marie sing her song "Until it's Time for You to Go" on YouTube.com. Check for additional music videos on the right side of this page.

GGPAA: Short Films
Watch a series of short films that pay tribute to numerous winners of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards. From the National Film Board of Canada.

Buffy Sainte-Marie
Watch a short video clip in which Aboriginal artist Buffy Sainte-Marie recounts how she was "discovered" in New York’s Greenwich Village. From cinefocus.com.