Indigenous Futurism

In the late 20th century, Indigenous artists and writers experimented with science fiction and images of Indigenous lifeways through different spaces and times. In her anthology, Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science-Fiction (2012), Grace 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.[1] Indigenous Futurists critique the exclusion of Indigenous people from the contemporary world and challenge notions of what constitutes advanced technology.[2] 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.[3] 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.[3]

Grace Dillon, editor of Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction,[4] 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.[5] 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.[6][7]

The concept of time in Indigenous Futurism moves away from Western traditional interpretations, both culturally and within the genre of speculative fiction. Time, according to Indigenous Futurists, encompasses and connects the past, present, and future all at once.[8] Artists may explore alternate histories, distant and near futures, separate timelines, time travel, the multiverse, and other topics in which time is not limited to a linear conceptualization.[9] Historical themes of colonialism, imperialism, genocide, conflict, the environment, trade and treaties, which have impacted Indigenous cultures, are recurring and reexamined, creating new narratives in the process.[10] Artists play with questions of race, privilege and "Whiteness", both in history and within the speculative genre; they are expanded upon, subverted, erased, reversed, etc., thereby linking culture to time, space, and what lies in-between.[11] The term biskaabiiyang (Anishinaabe), used by Dillon, exemplifies how Indigenous creators reflect on the impact of colonization by returning to their ancestral roots, conflating past with present and future, as well as reframing what the world would or could be like.[10]

In other words, Indigenous Futurisms do not solely address the future, but create a range of scenarios and phenomena in which reimaginations of space, time, and Indigeneity are celebrated.

Literature lends itself to many aspects of Indigenous Futurism. Many of the stories revolving around Indigenous Futurisms contain an Indigenous main character, however, this does not define the genre, when referring to literature in Indigenous Futurisms we are referring to the Author, or the conceptualized stories, as defined in Dillon's anthology.

Literature is currently the most diverse subject in Indigenous Futurism,[4] works including: Love After the End, compiled by Joshua Whitehead,a collection of stories and perspectives from queer Indigenous peoples tackling colonialism and the ideas of hope.[12]

Scholarly works including; Knotting Ontologies, Beading Aesthetics, and Braiding Temporalities, by Darren Lone Fight, an examination of Native American literary epistemology and futurisms including an analysis of the Indigenous Star Wars phenomena.[13]

An early source of collective Indigenous Futurisms is on the CyberPowWow website, a site launched by Skawennati (Mohawk) for Indigenous artworks starting in 1997 to 2004. It was a precursor to her TimeTraveller™ Machinima series began with a 22nd-century Mohawk man.[14]

Many pieces of Indigenous Futurist artwork contain iconography or symbolism that reference Indigenous oral history.[4] Another major facet of Indigenous Futurist artwork is the adaptation of existing culture and nomenclature.[15] For instance, artist Bunky Echo-Hawk's “If Yoda was Indian” displays show a new perspective on Yoda from the franchise Star Wars.

Kristina Baudemann focuses on storytelling and art and the integration of science fiction into Indigenous art in Indigenous Futurisms in North American Indigenous Art. She says that Indigenous people are resilient and sustainable and their art incorporates those characteristics.[16] One specific Indigenous artist, Ryan Singer (Navajo Nation), paints in acrylic and silk-screens prints. He has two pieces of Princess Leia, from the Star Wars series that portrays the princess as Hopi, acknowledging George Lucas' cultural appropriation of the Hopi butterfly whorl hairstyle.[17] In his first painting, Hopi Princess Leia (2009),[18] he shows the Hopi Princess Leia holding a gun pointing straight at the audience while also staring directly at the audience as well. In his second Hope Princess Leia, named Hopi Princess Leia II (2010),[19] Leia is seen holding a bigger gun and still looking directly at the audience. Baudemann analyses this depiction and says it creates awareness of the colonial gaze, which is harmful to indigeneity.[16] In these paintings Princess Leia is seen clad in a Hopi blanket, wearing the hairstyle typical to unmarried Hopi girls.[16] She is in front of her pueblo homes protecting them with her gun. Baudemann emphasizes the idea that Hopi homes should be seen as homes and not monuments that can be looked at by outsiders and they should not be appropriated.[16] Princess Leia, in the Star Wars movies, loves her home and tries her hardest to protect it which is why Singer chose Princess Leia to be depicted in these paintings.[16]

Indigenous Futurisms in film reflect non-colonial encounters such as utopian sovereignty and dystopian assimilation.[20] The continued development of Indigenous Futurist frameworks account for the diversity of creative efforts and histories between the First Nations, Inuit, and Native American filmmakers and communities[20] to influence the outside world.

Some Indigenous Futurist films include:

• Wakening (2013 short film) by Danis Goulet
• The 6th World, FutureStates’film short about Navajo people and Mars colonization.
• The Northlander (2016 film)
• Night Raiders (2021), directed by Danis Goulet

While not as prominent as literature, art, film, video games provide a more hands on approach to the teaching and display of Indigenous Futurism.[21]

Indigenous Futurist games range widely from games such as Thunderbird Strike, an action game where you take on the form of the legendary Thunderbird, gathering lightning to destroy mining equipment and factories on a terrorized and barren earth, to games such as Never Alone, which tells the story of a Iñupiaq and an Arctic fox as they explore a dire atmosphere and experience the mythology of the Alaska Natives for themselves.

Virtual reality (VR) is a medium in which the concept of screen sovereignty can be used to combat misrepresentation of Indigenous people in media. Indigenous VR makers are shaping the culture of technology through VR in order to properly represent Indigenous people and their culture. Currently, white media creators dominate the digital media field and digital technology industries. Indigenous Matriarch 4[22] is a virtual reality company that provides Indigenous people with the tools they need to participate in and remake the virtual world. Because Indigenous people are often misrepresented in media, VR has become a place to creatively express Native American culture and ideas. Indigenous VR has also provided Indigenous people with the opportunity to be leaders in a new technology field, and to be involved in technology fields that previously excluded them and that had very little representation of Native American and Indigenous communities.

Virtual reality is being used to create space and capacity for Indigenous creatives to tell their stories.[23] VR is used by many Indigenous practitioners to reimagine traditional storytelling and express themselves and their culture, promote health and wellbeing, and foster self-esteem and pride. New virtual platforms have also been created that retell significant moments in Indigenous history as well as connect to the present, like the platform AbTeC Island (Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace).[24]

The 2167VR Project (2017), in partnership with the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (TIIF), commissioned the works of many Indigenous artists such as Danis Goulet (Métis), Kent Monkman (Cree), Postcommodity and Scott Benesiinaabandan (Lac Seul First Nation), notable for his work Blueberry Pie Under a Martian Sky.[8] This immersive project exhibits virtual reality works set 150 years forward in time, paralleling Canada's 150th anniversary, each offering a different perspective on the role Indigenous peoples and identities will have in building the future.[25]

To increase this movement's visibility and bring attention to Indigenous voices, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) has established a branch, the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which collects and exhibits over 10,000 Indigenous works.[26] The MoCNA has an exhibition entitled Indigenous Futurisms, featuring the works of 27 contemporary Indigenous artists. Following the pandemic, the MoCNA has transferred the collection to an online gallery and made available a VR experience which the public can access through their devices.[27]

The term Indigenous Futurism, more commonly written as Indigenous Futurisms, was coined by Grace Dillon,[28] professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program at Portland State University.[29] The term was inspired by Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, all of which encapsulate multiple modes of art-making from literature to visual arts, fashion, and music.[30]

Indigenous Futurisms are also connected to Chicanafuturism, "a spectrum of speculative aesthetics produced by U.S. Latin@s, including Chican@s, Puerto Ricans, Dominican Americans, Cuban Americans, and other Latin American immigrant populations. It also includes innovative cultural productions stemming from the hybrid and fluid borderlands spaces, including the U.S.-Mexico border."[31]

Indigenous Futurisms as a term has received mixed feedback among Indigenous Brazilian musicians. Many Indigenous artists do not embrace this concept because they view preserving culture to be much more important than thinking about the future. For example, Indigenous rapper Kunumi MC, disagrees with the term, arguing that it is a white man's term unreflective of Indigenous people, saying: “We, native Indigenous people living in tribes, don't think about the future,” he says. “The white man has a vision of progress, not us. Our progress is to preserve our culture ... to live in the present, I have to remember my past.”[32]

Artists working within the field of Indigenous Futurisms include:Darren Lone Fight (Mvskoke, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara), a literary critic and professor who runs Center for the Futures of Native Peoples at Dickinson College;[33] Loretta Todd (Cree/Métis), a filmmaker who runs IM4, the Indigenous Matriarchs 4 XR Media Lab;[34] Skawennati (Mohawk), a multimedia artist best known for her project TimeTraveller, a nine-episode machinima series that uses science fiction to examine First Nations histories;[35]

• A Tribe Called Red, musicians[36]
• Barry Ace (Odawa) multimedia artist based in Sudbury
• KC Adams (Cree/Ojibway) multimedia artist based in Winnipeg
• Loren Aragon (Acoma Pueblo), fashion designer at Aconav[36]
• Jason Baerg (Métis), multimedia artist
• Roy Boney, Jr. (Cherokee Nation), animator, illustrator, comic artist, painter
• Bunky Echo-Hawk (Yakama/Pawnee) multimedia artist
• Rosalie Favell (Métis) digital artist based in Ottawa
• Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo), ceramic artist, painter, printmaker
• Jeffrey Gibson, (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee), painter and sculptor
• Danis Goulet (Métis/Cree) filmmaker and screenwriter based in Toronto
• Silver Jackson, also Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂), musician, multidisciplinary artist
• Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet), author
• Jamie Okuma (Luiseño/Shoshone-Bannock) beadwork artist and fashion designer
• Virgil Ortiz (Cochiti) ceramic sculptor and designer
• Wendy Ponca (Osage), fashion designer, textile artist
• Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke), installation artist, photographer
• Ryan Singer (Diné), painter
• Skawennati (Mohawk), multimedia artist
• Will Wilson (Navajo), photographer

• CyberPowWow
• Indigenous people in video gaming
• Never Alone
• Thunderbird Strike

• Guzmán, Alicia Inez (March 15, 2015). "Indigenous Futurisms". InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture.
• LaPensée, Elizabeth (January 2017). "Animating Indigenous Scientific Literacies". Labocine.
• Nixson, Lindsay (May 2016). "Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurisms". GUTS Magazine.

• Virtual reality environment of "Indigenous Futurisms: Transcending Past/Present/Future, at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts