Buffy Sainte-Marie urges patience, empathy on road to reconciliation
HALIFAX — The road to reconciliation must include empathy and patience from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, famed Aboriginal singer-activist Buffy Sainte-Marie said Tuesday as she touched on a legacy of racism she has been fighting much of her life.
The award-winning songwriter told a Halifax audience that decolonization is a shared effort between the descendants of European settlers and Indigenous people, and Aboriginal people should teach others about injustice in a compassionate and non-combative way.
Indigenous people need to understand that much of “settler racism has to do with not knowing,” she told the sold-out crowd.
In effect, Sainte-Marie said people in conflict should treat each other as if they were children and didn’t know about Canada’s painful history of Aboriginal relations.