Indigenous Futurisms

Indigenous Futurisms is a movement consisting of art, literature, comics, games, and other forms of media which express Indigenous perspectives of the future, past, and present in the context of science fiction and related sub-genres. Such perspectives may reflect Indigenous ways of knowing, traditional stories, historical or contemporary politics, and cultural realities.

Like Afrofuturism, encapsulate multiple modes of art making from literature to visual arts, fashion and music.[1] Inspired by Afrofuturism, the term was coined by Dr. Grace Dillon,[2] professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program at Portland State University.[3] In the anthology, Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, Dillon outlines how science-fiction can aid processes of decolonization. Using tools like slipstream, worldbuilding, science fiction and anthropological First Contact scenarios, Indigenous communities construct self-determined representations and alternative narratives about their identities and futures.[4] Indigenous Futurists critique the exclusion of Indigenous people from the contemporary world and challenge notions of what constitutes advanced technology.[5] In so doing, the movement questions the digital divide, noting that Indigenous peoples have at once been purposefully excluded from accessing media technologies and constructed as existing outside of modernity.[6] The widespread use of personal computers and the Internet following the Digital Revolution created conditions in which, to some extent, Indigenous peoples may participate in the creation of a network of self-representations.[7]

Prominent artists working within the field of Indigenous Futurisms include Loretta Todd, a Cree/Métis filmmaker who runs IM4, the Indigenous Matriarchs 4 XR Media Lab;[8] Elizabeth LaPensée, an Anishinaabe, Métis, and settler-Irish game designer and digital artist;[9] Skawennati, a Mohawk multi-media artist best known for her project TimeTraveller™, a nine-episode machinima series that uses science fiction to examine First Nations histories;[10] Stephen Graham Jones, a Blackfeet author; Cree Métis multimedia artist Jason Baerg; and Wendy Red Star, an Apsáalooke artist.

Indigenous scholars have advanced understanding of Indigenous Futurisms. Dr. Grace Dillon, who is editor of Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction,[11] has encouraged stories through IIF, the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Science Fiction Contest. Lou Catherine Cornum is a writer, scholar, and Indigenous Futurist known for their work Space NDNs.[12] Chickasaw scholar Jenny L. Davis emphasizes the importance of 'Indigenous language futurisms,' where she shows that Indigenous languages are important to articulating and understanding Indigenous temporalities.[13][14]

Indigenous Futurists

See also

References
  1. Guzmán, Alicia Inez. "Indigenous Futurisms". InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture. University of Rochester. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  2. Gaertner, David. ""WHAT'S A STORY LIKE YOU DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?": CYBERSPACE AND INDIGENOUS FUTURISM". Novel Alliances: Allied Perspectives on Literature, Art and New Media.
  3. "Grace Dillon". Portland State University. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  4. Gore, Amy (December 2013). "Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 25 (4): 100–103 – via Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
  5. Cornum, Lou Catherine (January 26, 2015). "The Space NDN's Star Map". The New Inquiry.
  6. "Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace". www.culturalsurvival.org. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  7. "Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace". www.culturalsurvival.org. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  8. "IM4 Media Lab". IM4 Media Lab. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  9. "Elizabeth LaPensée's Website". Elizabeth LaPensée Works. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  10. Ore, Jonathan. "Machinima art series revisits Oka Crisis, moments in native history". Cbc News. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  11. Dillon, Grace L. Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction. The University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-2982-7.
  12. Cornum, Lindsey Catherine. "Indigenous Futurism and Decolonial Deep Space". VOZ-À-VOZ. e-fagia organization. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  13. Davis, Jenny L. (2018). Talking Indian: Identity and Language Revitalization in the Chickasaw Renaissance. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8165-3768-6. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  14. "Jenny L. Davis to give 2019 Marc and Constance Jacobson Lecture". LSA Institute for the Humanities. Retrieved 29 December 2019.

Further reading and multimedia
  • Dillon, Grace L. Indigenous Futurisms , (pdf)
  • Roanhorse, Rebecca, Elizabeth LaPensée, Johnnie Jae, and Darcie Little Badger. “Decolonizing Science Fiction and Imagining Futures: An Indigenous Futurisms Roundtable.” Strange Horizons (Jan. 2017).
  • LaPensée, Elizabeth. “Animating Indigenous Scientific Literacies.” Labocine (Jan. 2017).
  • Nixson, Lindsay. "Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurisms" GUTS Magazine (May. 2016).
  • "Indigenous Futurisms," InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture, Alicia Inez Guzmán, March 15, 2015.
  • "Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape," RPMfm
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