SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The documentary film Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life will have its United States premiere today as part of the University of Rhode Island’s Honors Colloquium.

Sainte-Marie will introduce the film, which will be shown from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Cherry Auditorium of the Kirk Engineering Building, Upper College Road.

The film and Sainte-Marie’s presence are part of the Honors Colloquium series on “Songs of Social Justice: The Rhetoric of Music.”

Sainte-Marie and Grammy winner Bill Miller will sing and discuss music of and by Native Americans in Edwards Auditorium at 7:30 p.m., also as part of the Honors Colloquium.

The film, concert and discussion are free.

Sainte-Marie was born on a Cree reservation in Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was adopted and raised in Maine and Massachusetts.

She has been a voice for native people since she burst onto the folk music scene in the early 1960s with such protest songs as “Now That the Buffalo’s Gone” and “Universal Soldier.” The latter, which became an anti-Vietnam anthem, got her blacklisted from mainstream radio, and she toured mostly in Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia for several years.

Sainte-Marie continued to record her songs of protest, along with such love songs as “Until It’s Time for You to Go,” which was recorded by Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and Cher. And her love song for home, “Piney Wood Hills,” was a hit for her and a country-chart topper for Bobby Bare. She has recorded 17 albums.

She later was a regular for five years on Sesame Street with her son, Dakota Starblanket Wolfchild.

Along the way, Sainte-Marie won an Oscar for writing the song “Up Where We Belong,” from the movie Officer and a Gentleman.

She has a doctorate in fine arts from the University of Massachusetts and holds degrees in Oriental philosophy and teaching, which are influences that form the backbone of her musical, visual art and social activism.

Sainte-Marie is an adjunct professor of Native American studies at several colleges. Her computer-driven Native American art has been exhibited in museums and galleries across North America.

Miller, a singer and songwriter, is a Mohican Indian from northern Wisconsin. During the past three years, Miller has created two CDs, Spirit Rain and Cedar Dream Songs, which won him a Grammy Award for best Native American recording.