Indigenous Futurisms

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.[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]

Dr. 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]

A predominant source of Indigenous Futurism, literature lends itself to many aspects of this category. 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 Dr. Grace Dillon’s anthology.

Literature is currently the most diverse subject in Indigenous Futurisms.[4] Stories such as Trial of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse an urban-fantasy set in the near future consumed by monsters, to books such as Love After the End compiled by Joshua Whitehead which is a collection of stories and perspectives from queer indigenous peoples tackling colonialism and the ideas of hope.[8]

Concerning the more visual aspect of Indigenous Futurism, Art and Film encompass a large array for this category.

One large source of collective Indigenous Futurisms is on the CyberPowWow website. A site used for Native American artworks starting in 1997 to 2004.[9] Many pieces of indigenous futurism artwork contain iconography or symbolism in reference to Native American mythology or people.[4] Another major facet of indigenous futurisms in the artwork is the adaptation of existing culture and nomenclature.[10] For instance, artist Bunky Echo-Hawk’s “If Yoda was Indian” displays utilize Yoda from the franchise Star Wars.  

Besides nominal artwork, Indigenous Futurisms is also displayed in Film. A great example of Indigenous Futurisms rests in FUTURESTATES’ The 6th World, a short film that uses indigenous imagery, symbolism, and cultural practices of the Navajo people, in conjunction with the idea of colonizing Mars. Other interpretations can be in film such as the new television series Reservation Dogs, a show following Native American children as they embark on a journey to California.

Indigenous futurisms in Film most commonly do not track or display Western wants and desires, and instead, reflect non-colonial encounters such as utopian sovereignty and dystopian assimilation.[11] Furthermore, the continued development of indigenous futurist frameworks account for the diversity of creative efforts and histories between the Native American filmmakers and communities[11] to influence the outside world.

Some indigenous futurism films include:

• The Path Without End
• The Burden of Being
• The 6th World
• Night Raider
• Awakened

While not as prominent as Literature or Art and Film, Video games provide a more hands on approach to the teaching and display of Indigenous Futurism.[12]

Indigenous Futurisms games range widely from games such as Thunderbird Strike an action game where you take on the form of the legendary Thunderbird, gathering lightning in the turmoil of the clouds to destroy mining equipment and factories on a terrorized and baren earth. To games such as Never Alone which tells the story of a Iñupiat and an arctic fox as they explore a dire atmosphere and experience the mythology of the Alaskan native’s 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, mostly white peoples are the creators within the digital media field and digital technology industries. Indigenous Matriarch 4[13] 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.[14] VR is used by many Indigenous practitioners who use these new types of media to reimagine traditional storytelling and express themselves and their culture, promote health and wellbeing, and create self- esteem and pride. New virtual platforms have also been created that retell significant moments in indigenous history as well as to connect to the present, like the platform AbTeC Island (Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace).[15]

Like Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism encapsulate multiple modes of art making from literature to visual arts, fashion and music.[16] Inspired by Afrofuturism, the term, Indigenous Futurism, more commonly written as Indigenous Futurisms, was coined by Dr. Grace Dillon,[17] professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program at Portland State University.[18]

Indigenous Futurisms is 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."[19]

Indigenous Futurisms as a term has received mixed feedback among Indigenous Brazilian musicians, with many Indigenous artist not embracing this concept because they think that preserving culture is much more important than thinking about the future. For example, Indigenous rapper Kunumi MC, disagrees, arguing the term 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.”[20]

Prominent artists working within the field of Indigenous Futurisms include Loretta Todd (Cree/Métis), a filmmaker who runs IM4, the Indigenous Matriarchs 4 XR Media Lab;[21] Elizabeth LaPensée (Métis), a game designer and digital artist;[22] 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;[23]

• A Tribe Called Red, musicians
• KC Adams (Cree/Ojibway) multimedia artist based in Winnipeg
• Jason Baerg (Métis), multimedia artist
• Roy Boney, Jr. (Cherokee Nation), animator, illustrator, comic artist, painter
• Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo), ceramic artist, painter, printmaker
• Jeffrey Gibson, (Mississippi Choctaw/Cherokee), painter and sculptor
• Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet), author
• Cheryl l'Hirondelle (non-status Métis descent), multimedia artist
• Elizabeth LaPensée (Anishinaabe/Métis descent), and Irish game designer
• Darcie Little Badger (Lipan Apache), 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 (Navajo), painter
• Skawennati (Mohawk), multimedia artist
• Will Wilson (Navajo), photographer
• Bunky Echo-Hawk (Yakama and Pawnee) multimedia artist
• Rebecca Roanhorse (Pueblo) author
• Grace Dillon (Anishinaabe) anthropological professor at Portland State University

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

• 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

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