We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning

On Thursday, October 30th, join Massy Books, SFU Indigenous Studies, Penguin Random House, Talking Stick Festival, Capilano University Library, and the Vancouver Writers Festival for an evening with Oscar®-nominated filmmaker, Julian Brave NoiseCat, for the launch of his biography, We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning - a stunning narrative that interweaves oral history with hard-hitting journalism and a deeply personal father-son journey into a searing portrait of Indigenous survival, love, and resurgence. In conversation with award-winning journalist, Michelle Cyca.

This event is FREE, with the option to pre-purchase a copy of We Survived the Night for 20% OFF ($31.20) upon registration. Books will be for sale at the venue. A book signing and reception will take place following the event.

Capilano University Students, Faculty and Alumni get access and a book for $10. Capilano ID will be required at entry. Sponsored by the Capilano University Library!

COVID Protocols: Masks keep our community safe and are recommended. We ask if you are showing symptoms, that you stay home. Thank you kindly.

Accessibility: The Djavad Mowafaghian cinema is located at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, a brief walk from Waterfront station and numerous bus stops. Bike stalls are available outside. Nearby parking is available at 500 & 400 W. Cordova St.

The building is accessible at street level on the Hastings side or via a ramp on the Cordova Street Courtyard side (across from JJ Bean Coffee). There are two ramp entry points, one is located against the building, near the entrance to the Woodward’s Westbank Atrium (which houses London Drugs and Nesters) and one is located against the building, beside the alley. Both the Hastings doors and the Cordova Courtyard doors can be operated by accessibility buttons located beside the doorways.

The venue has a gender-neutral washroom. All floors within the building are wheelchair accessible and serviced by elevators.

The Book

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. In his father’s absence, NoiseCat immersed himself in Native history and culture to understand the man he seldom saw—his past, his story, where he came from—and, by extension, himself.

Drawing from five years of on-the-ground reporting, We Survived the Night paints a profound and unforgettable portrait of contemporary Indigenous life, alongside an intimate and deeply powerful reckoning between a father and a son. A soulful, formally daring, and indelible work from an important new voice.

The Author

JULIAN BRAVE NOISECAT is a writer, filmmaker and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, Sugarcane, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s own family was sent to near Williams Lake, B.C., and won the prize for best direction of a documentary at the 2024 Sundance film festival. NoiseCat is a proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and descendant of the Lil'Wat Nation of Mount Currie; his journalism has appeared in dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Walrus and Canadian Geographic and has been recognized with many awards including the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize. Before turning full-time to writing and filmmaking, NoiseCat was a political strategist, policy analyst and cultural organizer. We Survived the Night is his first book.

The Moderator

MICHELLE CYCA is an award-winning journalist and editor from Vancouver, Canada. She is the bureau chief of conservation and fellowships at The Narwhal and a contributing writer to The Walrus. You can also find her recent writing in Maclean’s, Chatelaine, The Globe & Mail and many other places. She is a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6, Saskatchewan, and lives and works on the ancestral, unceded homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

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