Listening to his family’s stories at the Canim Lake Band inspired Julian NoiseCat to become a journalist.
Although raised in the U.S., the freelance writer said his mother made sure he stayed connected with his roots with frequent visits with family at the Canim Lake.
It was during these visits that NoiseCat learned the history of the Archie family and the Secwepemc language from his grandmothers, Antoinette and Elsie Archie.
“A huge part of my practice as a journalist is about travelling and sharing the stories of Indigenous people all across Canada and the United States,” NoiseCat, 28, said. “A lot of that practice began with my experiences of visiting (Canim Lake) and listening to people talk about their life stories and our history. That’s always been a very significant interest of mine … I see that as part and parcel with my identity as a writer and journalist.”
NoiseCat’s work paid off this year when he won the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, netting himself $100,000. One of the stories cited in the panel’s selection was an hour-long episode for the Snap Judgment Podcast about the efforts of Cheyenne Brady, 2015’s Miss Indian World, to conduct the 2020 Census on her home reservation in North Dakota, culminating in the first-ever Census Pow Wow.
NoiseCat said he did his best to include the humour of the situation, the tribe’s historical reluctance to be counted and to honour the oral tradition of indigenous storytelling.
“I was really proud of how that piece turned out. I think it pointed to something broader than just the civic importance of counting everybody in the Census. For a people that have often been invisible to the broader culture what is counting, what does it mean to be visible?” he said.
NoiseCat said his teachers encouraged him to write growing up. He got his first taste of journalism writing for the Columbia Daily Spectator at Columbia University. He then went on to help found the think tank Data for Progress but kept freelance writing when he had the time.
He spent the past several years writing stories about Indigenous groups across Canada and the United States, and recently decided to do it full-time as a freelance journalist and author.
He is currently writing a narrative non-fiction novel about First Nations people in Canada and the U.S. entitled We Survived the Night. NoiseCat is also co-directing a documentary on the search for unmarked graves at St. Joseph’s Mission in Williams Lake.
“It’s a pretty heavy story to cover especially when your family is part of it but a huge part of why I’m able to cover it is thanks to the love and support of my family in Canim,” he said.
NoiseCat said he intends to continue to write stories about the indigenous experience in North America. In addition to the legacy of cultural genocide and colonialism, he wants to feature the vibrant culture, connection to the land and the strong sense of kin that’s still strong in many First Nations communities.
“Not everyone gets to make a living doing what they’re passionate about. I feel incredibly lucky to do what I do and to get the chance to travel to communities all across North America and beyond to hear their stories and then get to be part of it and share it with the broader world,” he said. “It’s such an amazing thing we get to do as journalists.”
He said he was honoured to receive the award.
“As a writer and a journalist, there are few things that are as gratifying as your colleagues saying we see and really appreciate your work. That is effectively what this award says. It’s really good to get that encouragement and the financial security to put my best foot forward and give my all to what I’m doing.”
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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