Ep. 065: The Cradleboard Project for First Nations Youth

Guest: Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie says her career has lived at the intersection of social activist and artist.

She points out that artists tell the stories of our times in ways that resonate. Over the past five decades, Ms. Sainte-Marie has been a voice for First Nations in Canada and the United States.

The Cradleboard project was a concept she developed in the early days of personal computing that allowed First Nations communities to connect and celebrate their individual and collective heritage. “This put aboriginal people in the driver's seat of delivering who they are to remote partners of the same age and they’d discuss everything from clan mothers to medicine. It’s a journey of discovery about each other’s cultures and their own. It’s putting kids in touch with kids and it promotes self-esteem.”