Buffy Sainte‑Marie

Bicentennial Honorary Degree Recipient

Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)

Singer-songwriter, composer, educator, philanthropist, social activist, actor, educator, visual artist, and digital pioneer Buffy Sainte-Marie has been an unwavering advocate for Indigenous rights and freedoms for more than 50 years.

Born in 1941 on the Piapot Cree Reserve in Saskatchewan, Buffy Sainte-Marie was adopted as a baby by a woman with Mi’kmaq ancestry and her husband and raised in Maine and Massachusetts. She graduated with honours from the University of Massachusetts in 1963 and moved to New York City, where she quickly established an international recording career. Buffy Sainte-Marie has recorded 18 albums to date, with songs like 1964’s “Universal Solider” — adopted as an anti-war anthem — covered by artists spanning generations. In 1969, she founded the Nihewan Foundation for Native American Education, dedicated to improving the education of and about Native American people and cultures. In 1996, she created the Cradleboard Teaching Project, which serves children and teachers worldwide, facilitating communication among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.

Dr. Sainte-Marie was the first Indigenous person to receive an Academy Award, for the song Up Where We Belong in 1983. Other awards include numerous JUNOs, the Polaris Music Prize for 2015’s Power in the Blood, the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Louis T. Delgado Award for Native American Philanthropist of the Year, and several Queen’s Jubilee Medals. She has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, is an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has received honorary degrees from 15 universities.