We Survived the Night
by Julian Brave NoiseCat · 2025
Buy on AmazonA stunning narrative from one of the most powerful young writers at work today, and the director of the Oscar®-nominated documentary, Sugarcane, We Survived the Night interweaves oral history with hard-hitting journalism and a deeply personal father-son journey into a searing portrait of Indigenous survival, love, and resurgence. Julian Brave NoiseCat’s childhood was rich with culture and contradictions. When his Secwépemc and St’at’imc father, an artist haunted by a turbulent past, abandoned the family, NoiseCat and his non-Native mother were embraced by the urban Native community in Oakland, California, as well as by family on the Canim Lake Indian Reserve in British Columbia.…
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The Audacious Book Club — Monthly Picks (2024–2026) · audacity.substack.com
"Sugarcane, the 2024 Oscar-nominated documentary co-directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat, follows NoiseCat and his father, Ed Archie NoiseCat – a renowned traditional carver and member of the Canim Lake Band of the Secwépemc – as they confront the grievous abuses perpetrated against Indigenous children, including their ancestors, at St. Joseph’s Mission in British Columbia. In this rousing book, NoiseCat deepens and expands the work of Sugarcane, exploring how Indigenous peoples have persisted despite centuries of attempted erasure by North American settlers. He weaves together lexéy’em (oral histories), tspetékwll (legends), memoir and on-the-ground reporting in a fascinating multifaceted restoration of Indigenous history and a celebration of contemporary Indigenous life."
NPR Books We Love — 2025 · apps.npr.org