Buffy Sainte-Marie interview

The recent Polaris Prize winner talks to Rolling Stone magazine about missing and murdered Indigenous women and the federal election

Polaris Prize winner and powerhouse singer Buffy Sainte-Marie spoke to Rolling Stone Magazine recently about her win, about other Canadian veteran musicians like Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, about the Canadian federal election and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

“It's a bigger issue even than missing or murdered indigenous women throughout the world, of course," Sainte-Marie said when asked what needs to be done to further educate people and make real change happen with the missing and murdered in Canada. "We have gotten it in a way that most people from a colonial background wouldn't understand; it's been going on for 500 years."

“However the issue is a global issue. Who is it who makes women go missing? Who is it who murders women? Is it other women? No, not so much. Is it children? No. Who does that leave? It's men,” she said.

“What do we need to do to raise a different kind of men in the world that we're living in? It's not just about policing; it's not about ‘Oh, your skirt was too short’; it's never about that, no. It's about the violence in the human heart that exists in a world of everything from giant military-industrial complexes to violence in sports and movies. We really do have to look at that as well as the more immediate, closer-to-home issues of safety.”

She was also asked what topics she feels aren’t being addressed enough in the Canadian federal election.

“I would say the environment, indigenous people, missing and murdered women, support for the arts and education are the ones that are most important to me,” Sainte-Marie responded. “What we need is not only votes but the follow-through after the votes. When you elect somebody, I don't care who you elect — if you just give them the keys to the cash register and walk away then you're going to be disappointed. That's the one thing we haven't learned.”

Read the full interview here.

Header image source: buffysainte-marie.com