Dreaming, never alone.
Gifts of grandmothers unknown…

Music Career | Biography

Award-winning Métis singer/songwriter Arlette Alcock is a descendant of the Little Black Bear Cree and Pine Creek Saulteaux (Anishinaabe) tribes. Her music stands out in its bold deliverance and her ongoing quest for peace, equality, and justice.

Arlette studied voice at the Saskatchewan Royal Conservatory of Music, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Her debut album Tribe of One was featured on APTN, CBC Radio, and Northern Native Broadcasting. Following the release of her second album, Wolfgirl, Arlette won Songwriter of the Year at the 2008 Native E Music Awards in New Mexico. In 2009, she was nominated for the Independent Songwriter Awards and was an Honor Award winner of the Great American Song Contest. In 2010 she released a music video for the song NDN Auntie and was named Artist of the Month by the Indigenous Internet Chamber of Commerce. Arlette has been a featured performer at many festivals and events including Celebration Metis, Night Hawk Aboriginal Music Festival, International Aboriginal Day, and the Missing Women's March. She has contributed to many projects including the Songs of the Treeline showcase with Micah Barnes. Arlette’s EP Midnight Mass Graves was released in October 2021, with the title track climbing #15 on the Indigenous Music Countdown that same month.

Arlette’s latest EP titled Birch Lake has just been released this year. The EP was produced by Bohemian-Métis musician and producer Janet Panic and features five powerful new songs.

A personal journey | In her own words

   My mother, Roseline Chartrand (1918 -1988) was Métis - French, Irish, and Saulteaux Anishinaabe from the Pine Creek Band in Manitoba. My mom was imprisoned in St. Anne's residential school from 1920 to 1935. My mother told me of the whippings, beatings, humiliation, and starvation that she endured for her entire childhood life as she was orphaned at 2 years old. My father, Raymond Adam Brabant (1913 -1979) was also Métis - French and Cree from the Little Black Bear Band of Cree & Assiniboine. He was imprisoned at the Lebret residential school from 1922 to 1930. My father would tell me the stories about his horse and his long braids, how he lost both as well as his childhood innocence when he was taken away and forced into the residential school.    

  As a result of childhood trauma and ongoing racism, both my parents fell to alcoholism, drug abuse and jail terms. They tried to start fresh, heading west and settling in Trail, British Columbia. It was there that I was born and raised. It was not an easy place to be a Metis. My parents taught me to be proud of my heritage and I would scrap anyone who called me names, but racism was rampant and I had to be very strong. I grew up angry and bitter. When I was about nine years old I found music to vent my pain and frustration and began to sing and write songs. Many songs from Tribe of One reflect that time.

       When I found out my family was from Saskatchewan I decided to see the prairies and it was then that I first felt like I belonged. I will never forget the time I played at a Friendship Center in Saskatoon. I looked into the audience and thought "These are my people, I'm home!"

       My father died of lead poisoning and black lung in 1979 when I was 6 months pregnant with my twin girls. My mother followed him in 1990 after suffering a heart attack in a skid row old folks home off East Hastings Street in Vancouver. I never got to say goodbye. There has been much pain and injustice in my life, but I also have much to be grateful for. I have a beautiful home in Kelowna now. I also have a loving partner and I am a proud mother and grandmother. Although there is still a rough road ahead for the next generations it is with hope and optimism that I watch my children and grandchildren move into the future.

Healing Through Music

In April Arlette was featured on the Métis Speaker Series Podcast to speak about losing her son to addiction and the way she uses music to share her Métis heritage. Listen Here: