You're trying to inform them."Īs part of her advocacy, she has been trying to get the Canadian Museum For Human Rights in Winnipeg to take a closer and more honest look at atrocities committed in North America. "You're not trying to scold the student for not knowing. To stave off the frustration, she said she leans on something she learned before she became a songwriter, while doing her teaching degree. Yet she considers it an honour to use the platform she's been given to inform others. Sainte-Marie said it's an attitude she still faces. WATCH | Buffy Sainte-Marie on how some people have tried to dismiss her messages about Indigenous history:ĭuration 0:34 Songwriter and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie talks to CBC's Adrienne Arsenault about how interviewers have often tried to dismiss her message when she has tried to counter Indigenous stereotypes and convey the realities of residential schools. Sainte-Marie's message hasn't always been well received, with interviewers asking things like, "Do you worry people say, 'I wonder if she ever has fun?'" in a 1986 interview on Midday, or simply diminishing her concerns by describing her as an "emotional woman" on As It Happens in 1977.Īs Arsenault described those interviews as being awkward, Sainte-Marie nodded and summed up the patronizing attitudes she faced this way: "Oh yes, the Little Indian Girl must be mistaken. But I have a platform, so I've been in a position to shoot my mouth off." But it's not just me," she told Arsenault, after watching the archive clip. She expresses concern and dismay over stereotypical portrayals of Indigenous people in movies and history books. As laid out in a 2018 document, the AFN says that doctrine is the root cause of multiple historical and ongoing injustices against Indigenous peoples.ĭuration 1:21 25-year-old Buffy Sainte-Marie appears on CBC Television’s TBA in 1966. This framework laid the legal and moral foundation for how Canada and other countries came to be colonized by European settlers.Īs Sainte-Marie put it, "The Doctrine of Discovery essentially says it's okay if you're a European explorer … to go anywhere in the world and either convert people and enslave, or you've got to kill them."Īs noted by the Assembly of First Nations, legal arguments relying on the Doctrine of Discovery continue to affect modern court rulings. The doctrine is an international framework based on a series of decrees from the Pope, called "papal bulls," that were released in the 1400s and 1500s. "The apology is just the beginning, of course," she said. Songwriter, educator and human rights advocate Buffy Sainte-Marie says the Pope's upcoming visit to Canada and expected apology for the church's involvement in the residential school system won't mean a thing if he doesn't call for the dissolution of the Doctrine of Discovery. Warning: This story contains distressing details.
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