Beatrice Deer has been writing songs for more than 25 years. The Montréal-based singer has been recognized by the Canadian Indigenous Music Awards, named Inuit Artist of the Year at the Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards, and earned a Canadian Screen Award for co-scoring Giant Bear, an animated short based on an Inuit folktale. And yet, when she contemplated making an album based on the legends of her communities, the stories passed down by her own family, she almost stopped herself.
“I kept asking myself if I’m worthy of telling these stories,” Deer says. “Because it was always elders who told these stories. I’m not an elder. I was questioning, ‘Am I going to get it right? Can I do these stories justice?’ Then I realized I am worthy. In our oral tradition, each story became its own version when it was told by another person from a different region, kind of like the broken telephone. Through time it would evolve. I gave myself permission to tell the stories my way.”
Inuit Legend, released April 3, 2025 on Uummati Records, is what Deer calls “Inuindie” music, a blend of indie rock and modern folk with traditional Inuit stories and throat-singing. Deer, who is half Inuk and half Mohawk, was born and raised in the small, isolated village of Quaqtaq, one of the most northern inhabited places in Québec. It was here that she first heard the stories of her ancestors, “at school, at home, at other peoples’ homes, on the local radio, just everywhere.”
“Storytelling is a huge part of Inuit culture,” Deer explains. “My grandmother, my mother’s mother, she told stories every night to her children before bed. And it was like that in every family. They still do it. So that’s why I wanted to make this album, to continue that tradition.”
The stories on Inuit Legend run from tragic to triumphant, sometimes within the same song. “Auukkati” is a dreamy electro-pop track about a killing spree that took place in 1899 in the Akolyvic region in Nunavik after a tragic hunting accident. “The Bear” recounts the near-death experience of an old woman who killed a polar bear with her cane during a famine.
Beatrice Deer. Photo by Alexi Hobbs.
The album’s first single, “Falcon and the Woman,” is a standout example of how Deer mixes the old and new and adds her own perspective.
“That song is a song of victory,” Deer says. “When I was quite young, my auntie told me about a woman and a falcon who kidnapped her, [but] I couldn’t remember the rest of the story. My auntie has dementia so she couldn’t answer my questions. And I really wanted to finish the song. I just turned into my victory song, as a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual violence. It’s saying for way too long you’ve been controlling me, but I won’t listen to you anymore. You’ll try and tie me up, but I’ll escape anyway. This light of mine is not something you can shut down. So that’s my Falcon and the Woman.”
Inuit Legend was produced by bandmates Mark Wheaton (drummer) and Christopher McCarron (guitar), who also collaborated on songwriting, with Beatrice writing all the lyrics and the three collaborating on music. “I’m beyond blessed,” she says of her bandmates. “I tend to not be so confident when I’m starting to write songs, but I trust them so much.”
The album’s cover art features an illustration by Janice Deer, Beatrice’s late sister. It’s just one of many ways her family is present throughout Inuit Legend. The song “Epidemic” honours her grandmother. Many more originated with stories from her auntie. And Deer says even those unseen and unheard are all part of the legendary project.
“It’s all my ancestors that just passed down these stories from generation to generation. It’s a very strong lineage and their creativity and their strength is in my DNA.”