Canadian TV Show Claims Well-Known Singer Is Not Indigenous

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Mark Jeffries

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Oct 27, 2023, 2:57:06 PM10/27/23
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Tonight's episode of the CBC's long-running newsmag "The Fifth Estate" will contain a report supposedly revealing that an "iconic Canadian singer" is not what she claimed to be for many years--folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, the first indigenous winner of an Oscar in 1982 for co-writing the "Officer and a Gentleman" theme "Up Where We Belong," believes that she is the subject of the report and that the report wrong,  saying that the Canadian pubcaster interviewed her last month her ancestry and being sexually assaulted as a child and that although she does not know everything about her ancestry, "I know who I am":


The above contains a video statement from Sainte-Marie--Americans will only be able to see the program if they live near the Canadian border and can pick up a CBC station OTA or on cable or if it is put online.

PGage

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Oct 27, 2023, 4:55:34 PM10/27/23
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We will have to see what the episode actually alleges, but from the HR account this is a substantially different category of things from Littlefeather. Even if Sainte-Marie is determined by some reliable method not to be the biological offspring of indigenous parents, she seems to have had a good faith belief that she was, was adopted by a recognized indigenous tribe, and lived her life with integrity to that identity.

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Bob Jersey

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Oct 27, 2023, 8:31:09 PM10/27/23
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It's on the 'toob, and not blocked outside Canada... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMsqCWNCUc4 (link)
B

Mark Jeffries, Oct 27th:

Kevin M.

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Oct 27, 2023, 9:02:21 PM10/27/23
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Canadians will have to tell me whether the tone of that story was typical of that series. I found it tainted with so much bias that I couldn’t help but wonder who emotionally wounded the reporter to make him feel that way. 

I have no vested interest in the ethnicity of the woman in question; I don’t know enough about her to care about her background, but they very clearly did. Everything from the sinister music normally reserved for axe murderers and rapists to the darkened almost noir-like old photos reeked of bias. Maybe she made up her background, or maybe she misunderstood her background, or maybe she simply didn’t know… didn’t matter to the reporter… he was out to tarnish her reputation and destroy her career. That was some truly, remarkably, unbelievably bad television. 

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Doug Eastick

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Oct 29, 2023, 2:53:09 PM10/29/23
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I haven't watched the episode in question, but I have seen the series before.   It is typical "Investigative Journalism" where they go deep in a subject.    Can't recall if there is a US equivalent, but I'm thinking of Keith Robertson.

I'm really not sure what stirred the origin of this story.


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Diner

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Oct 30, 2023, 6:58:11 AM10/30/23
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Can't comment on the episode, but I read the article last week after seeing a Twitter link to it, and it seems remarkably well-researched.


I don't have a vested interest in the story either, although I did see the documentary about her on American Masters last year. I thought it was well-done, although I still don't think she's a major artist.

Mark Jeffries

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Oct 30, 2023, 9:45:08 AM10/30/23
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The question now is if Sainte-Marie is not Native American, has there been an Oscar winner since 1982 that is--and if Lily Gladstone does win the Oscar for the Scorcese movie, would she be the first one?

Mark Jeffries
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Kevin M.

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Oct 30, 2023, 9:47:45 AM10/30/23
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On Mon, Oct 30, 2023 at 3:58 AM Diner <bway...@gmail.com> wrote:
Can't comment on the episode, but I read the article last week after seeing a Twitter link to it, and it seems remarkably well-researched.

I don’t dispute the validity of the documents they found, but they framed the information in a heavily biased way (seeking comment from family of the brother who allegedly raped her, for instance). They ascribed malicious intent with no basis. The facts were what they were, but the conclusions drawn were baseless. 

PGage

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Oct 30, 2023, 12:22:07 PM10/30/23
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I can’t often say this, but I agree with every word Kevin wrote in post below.

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PGage

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Oct 30, 2023, 12:26:41 PM10/30/23
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Having experienced the film this weekend ( and having read the book when it was first published) I can’t imagine anyone else’s name being read when they announce the winner (and thank God she won’t have to accept it from Will Fucking Smith).

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Kevin M.

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Oct 30, 2023, 2:26:14 PM10/30/23
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Noting the date and time 

John Edwards

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Oct 30, 2023, 3:11:10 PM10/30/23
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I think you mean Keith Morrison. Speaking of which, this is the type of story Dateline would have done before it became True Crime Theater. 

As for the origins, from the few Indigenous people I know, it does seem that who is Indigenous is an issue that is of some importance to the community, but the definitions of who qualifies seem to vary from person to person. The theoretical issue would be if she was winning awards that were reserved for Indigneous people when she wasn't. That said, during the peak of her fame, I don't think such a beast existed given that she was it.

I watched the first three minutes or so, and it didn't really hold my interest. 

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John Edwards
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Doug Eastick

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Oct 30, 2023, 3:41:28 PM10/30/23
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> Keith Morrison
yes, you are correct.  My apologies.  Morrison, not Robertson.





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Jim Ellwanger

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Oct 30, 2023, 3:55:00 PM10/30/23
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Keith Morrison... recently in the news as stepfather of the late Matthew Perry. (He's been married to Perry's mother Suzanne since 1981.)


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