Interview with Beatrice Deer

Lucy Tulugarjuk interviews Beatrice Deer LIVE January 20th, 2021.

Beatrice Deer, singer-songwriter, winner of the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and Canadian Folk Music Awards, is from Nunavik. Half Inuit and half Mohawk, Deer left the small Quebec town of Quaqtaq in 2007. She has five albums to her credit. It is a body of work in which she uniquely mixes traditional Inuit throat singing with contemporary indie rock. My All to You, her fifth album, marks an important milestone in the history of Inuindie music (a genre of which Deer is the pioneer) because, for the first time, she composed all the original music and lyrics. The topics covered include classic Inuit folk tales and legends, as well as personal development as an important tool in the search for understanding and the quest for meaning. She has attracted audiences worldwide and her songs are particularly loved in the Canadian Arctic, where the audience sings her songs during the many concerts she performs there. She sings in three languages: Inuktitut, English, and French. As a role model for her community and an activist for healthy lifestyles, Deer is often invited to speak. Her main message is that each of us must take control of our own lives. "No one else can do it for us. It is impossible to change what has happened. You can only adopt a new way of dealing with this past. "