Buffy Sainte-Marie visits the Toronto International Festival of Authors

By Christine Miskonoodinkwe- Smith

TORONTO—A captivated audience learned how the collaboration of the authorized biography came about between author Andrea Warner and singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie during an on-stage interview by Raina Douris at the Fleck Dance Theatre on Oct. 27.

Warner, an author who writes about music, feminism, pop culture, an associate producer at CBC Music, and co-host of the pop-culture podcast, Pop This!, was asked by Douris what it was like to get involved in writing Buffy Sainte-Marie’s biography.

“There was such a lovely comradery right away when I got a chance to talk to her on the phone and when I had an opportunity to pitch a biography, I wanted to write about Buffy Sainte-Marie. I mean, why wouldn’t I? I wanted it to be authorized and wanted to work with her and I just thought it would be an incredible opportunity to, really. I feel like there’s a lot of erasure of her work over the decades and thought this was a good opportunity to really give her the credit she deserves.”

The Buffy Sainte Marie: The Authorized Biography, is Sainte-Marie’s first and only authorized biography.

“Andrea is just a beautiful writer and before we got involved, even on the phone, I had read things that she had written and in particular We Oughta Know, which was just brilliant and blew me away,” said Sainte-Marie. “I got a call from my manager saying, ‘Someone wants to write another biography on you’— I’ve been offered the opportunity to have people write my biography, but I have always turned them down because regular show business biographers don’t usually get it right. And though Blair Stonechild wrote a nice historical book, he isn’t a music writer.

Sainte-Marie felt that collaborating with Warner on her biography would be a good fit because of their common ground as women, more specifically Indigenous women, and Warner’s extensive experience on writing about mutual interests.

“I was thrilled when I found out it was Andrea because I thought Andrea, in the first place, would understand certain things that were common to women, common to women in show business; I also knew she had a heart for Indigenous and other marginalized people in the world. So, I trusted her as a writer…It was really fun, and I was just thrilled to be able to work with a writer whose writing I already really liked, and it was about stuff that we were both interested in. I think for me, what was interesting about the biography and the subject matter is it’s something that we share, and that Andrea can write about. Another biographer, if he or she had tried, wouldn’t have been able to write about the same things and it wouldn’t have come out the same way.”

“For me, it’s never been about being a celebrity, it’s always been about the content of the songs, that’s the only way I got into show business or had the guts to get on stage. It wasn’t because I thought I was a good singer or something, it was really about the content of the songs and wanting to share what the songs were about with audiences I thought wanted to know and what Andrea wanted to know,” added Sainte-Marie.

Since her ground-breaking debut, 1964’s “It’s My Way,” Buffy Sainte-Marie has gone on to be a recognized trailblazer and a tireless advocate for Indigenous rights and freedoms. Her songs provide listeners with education on Indigenous issues and global perspectives, and in the beginning of her career, she felt that her audiences deserved to know about this.

“I haven’t stopped or shut up yet,” noted Sainte-Marie.