Kimowan will freeze, Mispon blow, blow, blow Mikoskam will come, Plants will grow, grow, grow Nipin loves kimowan, Deep down below Iskotew needs Kimowan, We know, know, know
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, the Banff Centre for the Arts and with private voice coach Glenda Rea in Vancouver. She also attended the Prince Albert Arts Centre where she studied Ukulele, Diddley Bow and Drums.
Arlette’s debut album, Tribe of One, was released in 1997. The album was produced by Grammy Award nominee Gaye Delorme and was featured on APTN, CBC Radio, and Northern Native Broadcasting. In 2007 Arlette released her second album, Wolfgirl and in 2008 she went on to win Songwriter of the Year at the Native E Music Awards in New Mexico and an Honour Award at the Great American Song Contest. She was also nominated for Best Folk Recording at the Native American Music Awards and the Independent Songwriter Awards and in 2010 the Indigenous Internet Chamber of Commerce named her Artist of the Month.
Arlette has been a featured performer at many festivals and events over the years. A few highlights include the Night Hawk Aboriginal Music Festival and International Aboriginal Day in Vancouver; the Songs of the Treeline showcase in Banff; Tapestrama Festival in Prince Albert; National Aboriginal Day, the Métis Rendezvouse and Stories from Around the World in Kelowna; and the Earth Daughter’s Music Festival in Golden. She was also featured on the MNBC Métis Speaker Series Podcast, Healing Through Music and has performed multiple times at the Missing Women's March in Vancouver, and Honouring Our Sisters in Kelowna.
In 2021 Arlette released the first EP in a three-part trilogy of new material featuring words from the Northern Cree and Northern Michif languages. The EP’s title track Midnight Mass Graves climbed to #15 on the Indigenous Music Countdown. The second EP in the trilogy, Birch Lake, was released in late 2022, with the single from the EP, Kimowan, remaining in the top 40 songs on the Indigenous Music Countdown for 11 weeks and climbing to #10 on the chart in December of 2023. Both EPs were produced by acclaimed Bohemian-Métis musician and producer Janet Panic.
Arlette is currently the resident Elder at the Métis Community Services Society in Kelowna and is working on the third EP in her trilogy which she hopes to release in 2026.
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
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:
