Julian Brave NoiseCat is a Canadian writer, filmmaker, and activist who is an enrolled member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'secen of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation in the Canadian province of British Columbia.[1] He is a public thinker and advocate on issues of climate justice and Indigenous rights in North America.[2]
Early life and education
editBorn in Minnesota, NoiseCat was raised by his mother in Oakland, California.[3] NoiseCat attended Columbia University and graduated in 2015 with a degree in history.[4] After being awarded a Clarendon Scholarship, he studied history at the University of Oxford and earned a graduate degree in global and imperial history.[5]
Career
editNoiseCat began his career as a political strategist and policy analyst. While working as vice president of policy and strategy at Data for Progress, NoiseCat was a prominent voice in the campaign to have Deb Haaland, an enrolled citizen of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and one of the first Native American women elected to the United States Congress, nominated and later confirmed as the 54th United States Secretary of the Interior.[6][7] He also served as a key policy thinker behind the Green New Deal movements in both the United States and Canada, with a particular emphasis on centering Indigenous communities in environmental justice work.[8]
Beyond the policy world, NoiseCat has participated in cultural organizing work. He developed the 2019 Alcatraz Canoe Journey alongside a group of veteran Native American activists, including LaNada War Jack and Eloy Martinez.[9] During the canoe journey, 18 canoes representing dozens of nations and tribes encircled Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay to honor the history of Native activists occupying the island between November 1969 and June 1971 and to remember the many Native people who were incarcerated on the island as prisoners of war.[10][11][12] The paddlers planned their journey to roughly coincide with both the 50th anniversary of the island's occupation as well as Indigenous People's Day. Afterward, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art held a series of talks on Native histories of Alcatraz Island.[13]
In addition to his policy and organizing work, NoiseCat has worked as a journalist and a cultural commentator on Indigenous and climate issues. He has published articles, essays, and reviews in The New York Times,[14] The Washington Post,[7] The Atlantic,[15] The Paris Review,[16] Politico,[17] The Guardian,[18] and Canadian Geographic.[19] In 2021, Time magazine included him in their Time 100 list of next generation leaders.[20] The magazine commissioned environmental activist Bill McKibben to write the brief description that accompanied NoiseCat's inclusion in the list. NoiseCat was awarded an American Mosaic Journalism Prize in 2022.[21]
NoiseCat is signed with publisher Alfred A. Knopf to release a forthcoming book, We Survived the Night, focused on Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada.[22] He is also co-director of the documentary film, Sugarcane, which investigates unmarked graves at Indian residential schools. Sugarcane was selected for an Enterprise Documentary Grant in 2022 by the International Documentary Association.[23] It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024 where it won the Grand Jury award for Directing.
References
edit- ^ "2022 Commencement - Julian Brave NoiseCat: Charge of the class". Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. 2022-04-30. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ McKibben, Bill (2021-02-17). "2021 TIME100 Next: Julian Brave Noisecat". Time. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "This 26-Year-Old Native Activist Is Rewriting the Future". Bioneers. 2019-05-08. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "Julian Brave NoiseCat CC'15 wins Clarendon Scholarship". Columbia College. 2015-05-15. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "Julian Brave Noisecat". Beyond the Spectacle: Native North American Presence in Britain. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ Lerer, Lisa (2021-06-12). "Born on the Left, Data for Progress Comes of Age in Biden's Washington". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ a b NoiseCat, Julian Brave. "Why Senate Republicans fear Deb Haaland". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ Muzyka, Kyle (May 29, 2020). "Green New Deal legislation must be Indigenous-led, says Julian Brave NoiseCat". CBC. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "The Occupation of Alcatraz". Open Space. 2019-11-25. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ "Alcatraz Is an Idea". Open Space. 2019-12-02. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ Friedler, Delilah (2019-10-14). "Remembering the time Native Americans created a village on Alcatraz". SFGATE. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "Jan. 3, 1895 | Nineteen Hopi Leaders Imprisoned in Alcatraz". Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ Martin, Nick (2019-10-14). "The Fight to Occupy Alcatraz". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ NoiseCat, Julian Brave (2019-11-20). "Opinion | Why Alcatraz Matters to Native Americans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ NoiseCat, Julian Brave (2020-07-12). "The McGirt Case Is a Historic Win for Tribes". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ NoiseCat, Julian Brave (2018-06-29). "Tommy Orange and the New Native Renaissance". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ NoiseCat, Julian Brave (23 February 2021). "Native Americans Finally Have a Cabinet Nominee. Will an Adopted Tlingit Take Her Down?". POLITICO. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ NoiseCat, Julian Brave (2019-06-11). "No, climate action can't be separated from social justice". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ NoiseCat, Julian Brave. "In search of promised lands". Canadian Geographic. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "2021 TIME100 Next: Julian Brave Noisecat". Time. 2021-02-17. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
- ^ KickingWoman, Kolby (2022-02-10). "Indigenous journalist awarded $100K prize". Indian Country Today.
- ^ "Knopf Author Julian Brave NoiseCat a Recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize". penguinrandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
- ^ "Sugarcane". International Documentary Association. Retrieved 2023-04-27.