Description
Having been unsuccessful in his bid to become the first First Nations Rhodes scholar (although he grew up in Oakland, Calif., his home community is at Canim Lake, BC), Noisecat nevertheless secured a prestigious Clarendon scholarship to read Global and Imperial History at Masters level. While at Oxford, he played defenseman for Oxford University Ice Hockey Club. During that year they won the national championship. Of his Rhodes experience he has said: “The Rhodes scholarship wasn’t designed or intended for me or my people, and that’s why I wanted it so badly. Long ago, men like Rhodes […] decided that humans were players in a zero-sum game and that the resources and opportunities would not be ours but theirs. I imagined that when I won the Rhodes […] I was going to take it all back – for Canim Lake (my home reserve), Oakland (where I grew up) and all of Indian Country.” Noisecat is now a successful writer and filmmaker.