Ed Archie NoiseCat grew up on the Canim Lake reserve in the early 1960s, in a cold place with no running water and no electricity, plywood floors and ice-crusted windows.
His is a sad and not uncommon example of the Aboriginal experience – something his son, Julian NoiseCat, despite being raised in a different time and in a different place, knows much about.
In fact, the 22-year-old history scholar likely knows and understands as well as anyone the present day implications of North America's long and dark colonial past, and about his Shuswap ancestry, whose traditional territory includes large sections of British Columbia’s vast central and southern Interior, including the Canim Lake Band near 100 Mile House.
Julian is a recent graduate from Columbia University in New York City and earned a prestigious scholarship to pursue a Master of Studies in Global and Imperial History at the University of Oxford in England. He wrote his undergraduate thesis exploring Shuswap culture.
It’s hard to overstate his intellect and his commitment to the resurrection and preservation of First Nations history and culture.
“Since his high school studies, he’s very quickly become a historian on a level that I would call him the authority on our family history in the Cariboo,” says Ed, a professional artist who now resides in Washington.
“[Julian] knows more about where our family came from and what our ancestors did to secure our land than anybody else.”
Julian, who was raised in Oakland, California, has also become fluent in the traditional Secwepemc language, of which only a handful of speakers remain on the Canim Lake reserve.
Joining Julian and Ed in New York for his recent graduation in May was Julian’s aunt, Angela Peters-Oddy, a First Nations counsellor at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School in 100 Mile House.
She believes her nephew is engaged in very important work. He’s retracing the past, providing context for the present, and looking toward the future.
“He’s pretty much the role model you would want to have for your kids. He’s done a lot of work on himself.
“He’s dancing at powwows, he’s speaking out. He’s not just saying ‘this is the past’, he’s saying ‘this is how it affects us today’.”
Julian’s thesis is titled “Re Séme7 Westes tek Boston: Shuswap Memory, Museums and Nationalism, 1958-1986.” Part of his research included interviewing Shuswap elders in the Canim Lake area. For Julian, the experience was like “visiting home.”
“I think it’s important there’s a thesis on the history of the Shuswap people and their culture and politics at a history department in the Ivy League.
“It’s never happened before. There’s not enough knowledge and understanding about us and our people.”
Asked about his love of history and how he got started in this area of study, Julian mentions his grandmother, Antoinette Archie, and his aunt, Elsie Archie, who he acknowledges in his thesis for teaching and keeping their traditional language alive. “I carry their love with me in all that I do,” Julian writes.
“I think their fortitude and their love for the language and culture and their family, and all the effort they put in, fighting a battle that needs to be fought, and is going to be a very difficult one ultimately to win – that’s very inspiring.”
Ed describes his son as incredibly compassionate, respectful, thoughtful and intelligent – the kind of person to “do what needs to be done to save what’s left of our culture and language.”
Julian says he’s excited about the next Oxford-bound step in his very remarkable academic journey. As for the future, he says he hopes to eventually be in a position where he can give back to his family, his people, and to others as well.
“I think that will be the true measure of my success.”