Universal Soldier inducted to hall of fame
by Joseph Roberts

Joseph Roberts: Common Ground has a new arts and entertainment section dedicated to raising awareness and empowering people. I feel you're doing that.
Buffy Sainte-Marie: I just got back from touring in Manitoba with the Cradleboard Teaching project, and then Toronto and Ottawa. In Toronto we had a big gala when Universal Soldier was inducted into The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. It was broadcast on CBC.
JR Universal Soldier is just as timely today as when you wrote it.
BSM Yes, unfortunately.
JR For the past 28 years you've been working with the Nihewan Foundation.
BSM I started the foundation a lot longer ago than that. We started it in 1968 and it became a reality in '69.
JR What does the word Ni-he-wan mean?
BSM It means “talk Cree”, but it implies “Be your culture”.
JR I remember listening to God Is Alive and Magic Is Afoot a long time ago and want to thank you for putting out that message.
BSM I re-recorded that on the album of Up Where We Belong which is a collection of new songs and all the songs that are most requested in concert. We've used that song in the video concert I did for CBC, also called Up Where We Belong. We got a Gemini for it.
JR And you’ve worked with UNESCO on a school project in Canada.
BSM Melinda Barnes is the spokesperson for that. It's really their project.
JR I'm curious about your degree in Oriental philosophy.
BSM When I entered college I thought I'd be a veterinarian and I do love animals, but in the process of settling in as a student I'd always been interested in people's relationships with the Creator, so my study in world religion kind of focused down to oriental philosophy. So at the University of Massachusetts I majored in that at the same time as getting my teaching degree.
JR Was that prior to God is Alive?
BSM Oh, much before. That was when I was in college in 1959.
JR When did you first pick up a guitar and feel it was more amazing than you imagined.
BSM I probably was about 15 and in high school. I'd played piano up until then, anything else I could get my hands on, so I got my first guitar as a teenager which was great for me because I was very shy and it was portable. So I could take it anywhere I wanted to go and just enjoy songwriting by myself. It came very easily.
JR I've fallen in love with the guitar again.
BSM I just got a new Godin and I like it very much. It's a steel string, but it has a very beautiful easy fingerboard.
JR When you write a song do you do the words first or the music?
BSM Very often at the same time, but it
varies.
JR How would you describe the feeling when you know something is coming through you?
BSM It's a little bit like dreaming. I guess I don't have words for that. It's funny, because the feeling itself is very non-verbal and similar to what I get with animals when you just kind of shut off your conscious verbal processes and be a part of the moment, kind of shut up and listen.
JR Do you feel expansion or a sense of connectedness?
BSM I don't know. It's kind of like a radio is turned on in my head. I have no idea where it comes from. There's another side to my writing that's very well thought-out and very deliberate. I'll get an idea for a song and kind of hear this thing in my head.
If I get fascinated enough and it's a topical song like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee or Universal Soldier I'll just work on it, because I have a goal at that point. Then it becomes quite deliberate and almost like writing a college thesis because I have a goal to present it to other people who might not have thought of it in that way. Then I know I only have three minutes to make, in some cases, a very new point, even if it's something as old as what Universal Soldier is about - everybody being responsible for the war.
JR I saw your concert on Salt Spring Island.
BSM That was a fun one. It's also a very, very nice place to stay. I also remember someone coming in wearing a beautiful calico shirt that I liked so much he gave it to me.
JR What's closest to your heart these days?
BSM My animals. I have a really close relationship with horses, and a herd of goats and cats and dogs and family. So my home front, of course. But also the Cradleboard Teaching Project. I just spent a couple of weeks in northern Manitoba and Winnipeg. The ministers of education and heritage are really supportive of the project, so I was just in Norway House teaching teachers how to participate and stay involved.
JR Tell us about your painting.
BSM Well, I was the first person to do big scale digital paintings to appear in galleries and museums. The paintings being exhibited now were started in 1988.
JR I see your self-portrait in the red background on your website.
BSM There are a lot of other paintings on the site.
JR You will be in Vancouver March 13 at the Talking Stick Festival. Does that tie in with other work you're doing?
BSM In a way it does. Ulali is going to be there as well, you know. Don't miss them, they're magnificent. I'm also doing a workshop on the 14th but we haven't decided yet if it's going to be a Cradleboard workshop or a music workshop or what. But I'll be at the Chan Centre both days. I love it there.
For more information visit Buffy’s website www.creative-native.com or the Talking Stick Festival www.fullcircle.ca