“Cultural Appropriation”

Pretendianism — pretending to be an Indian for fame and fortune — a fraudulent practice that has been around for generations, has exploded in popularity in the past few decades.

The most recent example involves questions about federal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault arising from a four-part investigative exposé by the National Post.

Pretendianism — pretending to be an Indian for fame and fortune — has been commonplace for generations.

But since the 1982 entrenchment of special indigenous and treaty rights in Sections 25 and 35 of the Canadian Constitution and their gradual but relentless expansive interpretation by the courts, indigenous identity theft by non-aboriginals has skyrocketed in lock-step with the growing status, influence, privilege and wealth that faking Indian pedigree now yields.

Christian Allaire is upset. As Senior Fashion and Style Writer at Vogue magazine and self-described “champion” of Indigenous stories and artists, he laments the sight of his Native culture being “reduced to a kind of gimmick” and “reduced to caricature” in the fashion world. He calls this “appropriation.”

It is a truth universally acknowledged that all sane and decent people like, if not love, Dolly Parton. Another universal truth is that Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” is one of the greatest country songs ever written. But one of the truths of life in 2024 is that modern pop culture degrades everything it touches. Nothing more clearly illustrates that fact than Beyoncé’s aggressively “girl boss” version of Parton’s classic song. It’s a travesty and a metaphor for so much of the damage leftism has inflicted on the world.

The biography of Buffy Sainte-Marie on her official website no longer claims she is a Cree woman “likely” born on the Piapot First Nation in Saskatchewan.

The changes were made on Buffysainte-marie.com days after CBC released its Oct. 27 investigation that questioned the famous singer’s decades-long claim to Cree ancestry.

In her first statement to CBC News since the investigation published, Sainte-Marie wrote that she removed material from her website in order to limit the “criticism, threats and abuse” supporters who have defended her in public have faced since the investigation was published.

Buffy Sainte-Marie is pushing back on a news report that questions her Indigenous heritage, maintaining she has never lied about her identity.

The iconic singer, songwriter and activist says the recent CBC report was full of mistakes and omissions. In her first public statement since it was published, Sainte-Marie calls the story an attack on her character, life and legacy.

“Being an ‘Indian’ has little to do with sperm tracking and colonial record keeping: it has to do with community, culture, knowledge, teachings, who claims you, who you love, who loves you and who’s your family,” Sainte-Marie, 82, said in a written statement to The Canadian Press.

That in itself is an admission that she isn’t of native ancestry and occupies a world of enabled make-believe. It’s getting sad.

Prominent figures in North America have faced allegations in recent years of lying about being indigenous. But none have touched a nerve quite like the recent allegations about Buffy Sainte-Marie – an Oscar-winning folk singer long celebrated as an indigenous icon.

When playwright Drew Hayden Taylor learned that questions were swirling around Buffy Sainte-Marie’s indigenous ancestry, his “jaw literally dropped”.

Mr Taylor, from Curve Lake First Nations, is a long-time fan of the singer, known for songs like Until It’s Time for You to Go and the anti-war anthem Universal Soldier.

Normally, when someone attacks CBC News for bad journalism, we here at the Post are naturally tempted to whoop, “Pass the ammo!” But on Sunday the Toronto Star published a column by Robert Jago, an outstanding Indigenous freelance writer, that denounced the corporation for its thorough, bulletproof, incredibly-long-overdue exposé of folksinger Buffy Sainte-Marie’s faked Indigenous origins.

I wonder at the sensitivity of the Bluffy revelations.

The willingness of some to turn away from the truth is understandable among friends and admirers indigenous or not.

A backlash against the fiasco of the fake graves mania perhaps?