Dear subscriber,

This past week the Indigenous community has been in shock with the news of Buffy St. Marie being a pretendian and actually may a person of Italian descent.

She has been a beacon and an Icon to many Indigenous people and has inspired so many artist and people to follow their dreams. She was a hero and legend to a lot of Indigenous people.

Now a lot are heartbroken, confused, angry you can read more here.

There's a lot of complexities here as Buffy championed a lot of causes and spoke out about Indigenous issues. There were others doing it but not with a platform like hers.

The question is if she would have done it if she wasn't playing the Indigenous character? She was making a huge name for herself taking on the Indigenous angle and claiming Indigenous.

Many of her awards she won beat out other Indigenous artist, awards that may have set those people on an incredible path themselves to reach new levels in their own careers.

Pretendians use the Indigenous angle to gain for themselves. They win grants, bursaries, awards and more claiming to be Indigenous when they are not.

It's a huge issue that is also starting to be cracked down on.

This is why it's important when hiring that we vet the people who are coming into our organization. Where they know their story or where they originally came from and who their ancestors are.

To read more about this visit here.

Sincerely,