Buffy Sainte-Marie: What’s New
Buffy Sainte-Marie’s career has never stood still. From her 1964 debut to her ongoing work in digital art, education, and performance, she has accumulated a record of achievement that crosses music, visual art, philanthropy, and public service. This page documents her awards, milestones, and projects.
Awards and Honors
- Academy Award for Best Original Song — "Up Where We Belong" (co-written with Jack Nitzsche and Will Jennings), from An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)
- Inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame — 1995; the induction was revoked by CARAS in March 2025
- Order of Canada — appointed 1997 and promoted to Companion in 2019; the appointment was terminated on January 3, 2025
- Juno Award — for the Up Where We Belong CD; revoked with her other Juno Awards in March 2025
- Gemini Award — for the Up Where We Belong music video
- Lifetime Achievement Award, American Indian College Fund — 2001
- Louis T. Delgado Award for Native American Philanthropist of the Year — 1998
- Lifetime Achievement Award, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards — 1998
- Second Medal from Queen Elizabeth II — Saskatchewan, October 2002 (first was in 1982); her 2002 Golden Jubilee medal was withdrawn in 2025
- National Commission on Service Learning — Commissioner, 2000–2001
- Save America’s Treasures Committee — served during the late 1990s
Several of these honors were withdrawn in 2025: the Governor General terminated her appointment to the Order of Canada in January, and in March CARAS revoked her Juno Awards and Canadian Music Hall of Fame induction, as the Toronto Star reported.
Academic and Intellectual Achievements
Buffy Sainte-Marie earned a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts, documenting her serious commitment to the intellectual dimension of artistic work. She is not simply a performer who crossed into education — she is a trained educator who has thought systematically about how art and cultural preservation work.
That commitment found its most sustained institutional form in the Cradleboard Teaching Project, which she founded. Cradleboard connected Indigenous and non-Indigenous classrooms across North America, pairing them electronically so that students could learn about Native American cultures directly from Native children and communities. The project was recognized by Yahoo! Internet Life as part of their profile of Buffy as "a digital pioneer in her own right" and "our guide to the new frontier of Indian country." Organizations including the National Wildlife Federation helped support its educational outreach mission.
Pioneering Firsts
- Recorded the first-ever electronic vocal album in quadraphonic surround sound — Illuminations (1969)
- One of the first recording artists to maintain a personal website
- One of the first to compose music entirely on a synthesizer
- Pioneer in digital visual art — her computer-generated images have been exhibited in galleries and museums
- Founded the Cradleboard Teaching Project, connecting classrooms electronically before that was a routine concept
Notable Performances and Moments
In November 2002, Buffy performed at the Kennedy Space Center to honor Commander John Herrington, the first enrolled Native American to fly in space. The ceremony brought together two kinds of pioneering — the technological and the cultural — in a way that felt characteristic of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s ability to occupy multiple worlds at once. Read more on the Commander Herrington page.
In May 2005, she performed in South Burlington, Vermont, continuing decades of touring. A reviewer described her as sounding every bit as vital as she had on her 1964 debut.
The Buffy Sainte-Marie Rose
A rose has been named in Buffy’s honor — a recognition that transcends the music industry and says something about the breadth of affection she has inspired across communities and disciplines. It joins the Academy Award as a marker of a life lived at full stretch, though several of her other honors, including her hall of fame inductions, were revoked in 2025.
Recent Works and Projects
- CD-ROM: Science: Through Native American Eyes — 1999
- Video: Up Where We Belong — 1996 (Gemini Award winner)
- CD: Up Where We Belong — 1996 (Juno Award winner; the award was revoked in 2025)
- CD: Coincidence And Likely Stories — 1992