A First Nations woman from Kahnawake, Quebec, has received a Rhodes scholarship.

Iakoiehwahtha Patton is the latest Canadian writer and recipient of the scholarship.

The oldest international graduate scholarship, the Rhodes scholarship offers people from all over the world a chance to study at Oxford University through a fully funded scholarship.

Ms Patton is currently completing her undergraduate degree in History of Art, Anthropology and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.

Ms Patton told City News Montreal, it's a dream come true for her as an Indigenous academic.

"I didn't know of any Indigenous academics especially Indigenous historians until I deliberately went out and looked for that information and had those role models to look up to," she said.

She will head to Oxford University and continue her studies in art history, with a specific focus on Netherlandish art, and Dutch colonialism and its connection to her Indigenous heritage.

"The Dutch had one of the biggest colonial empires at the time. They had a colony in the United States called New Netherland that extended from Albany all the way to Delaware," she told the University of Toronto.

"And that was where my people were situated in the 17th century. So there's this overlap of my discipline that I love and my community's history."

"That's what I want to study at the graduate level. Art communicates values, communicates belief systems - and it's situated within its cultural context."

Ms Patton said her identity and her work are tied together and she hopes she can become a role model.

"I know that being the first, (Canadian) First Nations female Rhode scholar has a weight in that," she said.

"And I know the responsibility that I hold having that title and if I can be the first then I know I'm not going to be the last and that's what's really important to me."