Indigenous futurism

Names

• Indigenous Futurism
• Indigenous Futurisms
• Can overlap with many subgenres of Indigenous, Cultural and Ethno Futurisms such as Adivasi Futurism, Tropical Futurism, First Nations Futurism, Inuit Futurism, Pasifikafuturism, Latinxfuturism, Amazofuturism, Amazigh Futurism and more
• Can overlap with Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism
• Can overlap with movements like Solarpunk, Magical Realism, Worlding, Futurisms, Sci-Fi and more

Origin

• Named in 2012 by Grace L. Dillon, PhD and Anishinaabe scholar, with the release of Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction.
• Grace has stated that the works and genre existed before, just without a unifying name.
• Grace prefers to call it Indigenous Futurisms in plural.
• As a broad name and genre, it can overlap with many types of Indigenous Futurism around the world, though it initially began in North America and for some it has a North American Indigenous connotation. Since its emergence there have been many types of Indigenous Futurisms created and named, including anti-Futurisms.
• Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism are regularly cited as primary inspirations for the rapidly expanding realm of Futurisms, especially Alternative Futurisms, or Futurisms which are not White and Western, non-techno-Utopian, anti-capitalist and anti-colonial.
• Grace was also co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, released in 2023.

Artists and Creators

• Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace
• Abundant Intelligences (CAN)
• Marcus Amerman
• Bryon Archuleta
• Sonny Assu
• AZ OOR
• Center for ReWorlding
• Gina Cole (NZ, Tāmaki Makaurau)
• Solomon Enos (US, Hawai'i)
• Skawennati Tricia Fragnito aka Skawennati (CAN)
• Nicholas Galanin
• Teri Greeves
• Luzene Hill
• Nalo Hopkinson
• Frank Buffalo Hyde
• Indigenous Futures Research Center (CAN)
• Lisa Jackson
• Dr. Ambelin Kwaymullina
• Steven Paul Judd
• Matthew Kaopio
• Kite
• Casey Koyczan
• Elizabeth LaPensée
• Jason Edward Lewis (CAN)
• Cannupa Hanska Luger
• Daniel McCoy Jr.
• James McCloud
• Caroline Monnet
• Ehren Kee Natay
• Shelley Niro
• Virgil Ortiz
• Rajni Perera (CAN)
• Lido Pimienta (CAN)
• Pudlo Pudlat
• Devin Ronneberg
• Cara Romero (US, Chemehuevi)
• Sarah Roselena
• Sarah Sense
• Vandana Shiva (IN)
• Osheen Siva
• Hoka Skenandore
• Ryan Singer
• Subash Thebe Limbu (NP, Yakthung Nation)
• Sony Thokchom
• Robert Dale Tsosie
• Celina Tupou-Fulivai aka Heliaki
• Jeffrey Veregge
• Rory Wakemup
• Star WallowingBull
• Will Wilson
• Debra Yepa-Pappan
• Santiago X
• Kira Xonorika

Curators and Theorists

• Greg Cajete
• Grace L. Dillon (US)
• Priteegandha Naik
• Sadaf Padder
• Carlos Quijon, Jr.

Events, Performances, Screenings

• "Indigenous Futurisms Launch Party", Kimiwan Magazine, Saskatoon, Nov 2015.

Discussions and Panels

• "Decolonizing Science Fiction And Imagining Futures: An Indigenous Futurisms Roundtable", January 30 2017. Speakers: Rebecca Roanhorse, Elizabeth LaPensée, Johnnie Jae, Darcie Little Badger.

• “Native Science: The Indigenous Mind Rising”, University of New England Center for Global Humanities, University of New England Center, ME. Keynote Address. February 24 2020. Speaker: Greg Cajete.

• "Formations – Adivasi and Dalit Futurism: Artists Subash Thebe Limbu and Osheen Siva in Conversation", CADALFEST (Celebrating Adivasi and Dalit Arts and Literature Festival), Bonington Gallery, Online, India and Nottingham, October 20 2022. Speakers: Osheen Siva, Subash Thebe Limbu, K.A. Geetha, Priteegandha Naik.

• "We Are All Stardust: Exploring Indigenous ideas of Time, Space and Being", Dowse Museum, New Zealand, February 11 2023. Part of Whetūrangitia/Made As Stars Exhibition. Speakers: Brian Martin, Carl Mika, Te Kahuratai Moko-Painting.

• "The Road Beyond Ningwasum: A Roundtable on Himalayan Indigenous Futures", Moderated by Pasang Yangjee Sherpa as part of UH Manoa Center for South Asian Studies Spring Symposium 2024: "South Asian Futures", University of Hawai'i at Manoa, April 10-12, 2024. Speakers: Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, Charisma Lepcha, Elspeth Iralu, Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia, Mabel Gergan, Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Sara Smith.

• "Indigenous Futurism in Hawai’i and Beyond: An Artist Talk with Solomon Enos", Concordia University, June 26, 2024.

Conferences and Forums

• Danya Epstein, “Future Progressive: Dennis Numkena’s Indigenous Futurisms”, paper presented at the 109th CAA Annual Conference, February 11 2021.
• Hawaiian Futurisms Symposium, Ho‘oulu Lāhui: 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, Honolulu, June 15 2024.
• iX SYMPOSIUM: Indigenous Immersive Futures, Mutek Forum, Monument-National, Montreal, August 21, 2024. Speakers: Loretta Todd, Kayla Briët, Skawennati, Amelia Winger-Bearskin.
• Conference on Global Indigenous Studies (CGIS), Indiana University Bloomington, USA, November 15-17, 2024. Speakers: Aluki Kotierk, Eduardo S. Brondizio, K. David Harrison, Mirian Masaquiza Jerez and others.
• Aotearoa Futures Forum, June 30 2025. TBA.

Exhibitions and Catalogues

• 

  Indigenous Futurisms: Transcending Past/Present/Future, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 2021

2024

• Future Imaginaries: Indigenous Art, Fashion, Technology, exhibition, Autry Museum, Los Angeles, September 7, 2024 – June 21, 2026. Catalogue.

• Hawaiian Futurisms, Exhibition and Symposium, Ho‘oulu Lāhui: 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, Honolulu, June 3-28 2024.

2023

• And Land Erodes Into, part of Archipelagic Futurisms, Calle Wright, Manila, 2023. Curated by Carlos Quijon, Jr. Works by Nice Buenaventura and Fyerool Darma.

2022

• Whetūrangitia/Made As Stars, Dowse Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, Sept 2022-Feb 2023. Work by artists from Aotearoa, Nepal, Canada, Hawai’i, Sāmoa, Tonga and Laos including Ashin Ashin, Hannah Claus, Solomon Enos, Glenn Gear, Robert Jahnke, Maioha Kara, Subash Thebe Limbu, Tcheu Siong, Kereama Taepa, Tyrone Te Waa, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Telly Tuita, Pati Tyrell.

2021

• Indigenous Futurisms: Transcending Past/Present/Future, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, February 13 2020–January 3, 2021. Works by Marcus Amerman, Bryon Archuleta, Sonny Assu, Nicholas Galanin, Teri Greeves, Luzene Hill, Frank Buffalo Hyde, Steven Paul Judd, Kite, Elizabeth LaPensée, Daniel McCoy Jr., James McCloud, Ehren Kee Natay, Shelley Niro, Virgil Ortiz, Devin Ronneberg, Sarah Sense, Ryan Singer, Skawennati, Hoka Skenandore, Neal Ambrose Smith, Robert Dale Tsosie, Jeffrey Veregge, Rory Wakemup, Will Wilson, Santiago X, Debra Yepa-Pappan.

2019

• XicanX Futurity, The Manetti Shrum Museum, UC Davis, California, January 29-May 5, 2019. Works by Celia Herrera Rodríguez, Felicia “Fe” Montes, Gina Aparicio, Gilda Posada, Melanie Cervantes, Margaret “Quica” Alarcon. Curated by Carlos Jackson, Maria Esther Fernandez, Susy Zepeda.

Publications

Books

Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, Edited by Grace L. Dillon, 2012

The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, Edited by Taryne Jade Taylor, Isiah Lavender III, Grace L. Dillon, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, 2023

• Grace L. Dillon (Ed.), Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, University of Arizona Press, 2012. Works by Gerald Vizenor, Diane Glancy, Stephen Graham Jones, Sherman Alexie, Celu Amberstone, Gerry William, Simon Ortiz, Nalo Hopkinson, Andrea Hairston, Archie Weller, William Sanders, Zainab Amadahy, Misha, Eden Robinson, Leslie Marmon Silko, Robert Sullivan.

• Jessica Hernandes, Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes, North Atlantic Books, January 2022.

• Taryne Jade Taylor, Isiah Lavender III, Grace L. Dillon, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, Routledge, Oct 2023, 716 pp.

Magazines, Journals, Blogs

• Indigenous Futurisms, Kimiwan Magazine Issue 8, Saskatoon, Nov 2015. Includes a mixtape and live launch event.
• Imagining Indigenous Futurisms, Facebook Group.
• Indigenous Futures, National Geographic Special Issue, July 2024.

Videos, Podcasts, Radio

• "Indigenous Futurisms Mixtape", Kimiwa Magazine and RpmFM, 2015.
• Nora Young, "Spark 495: Indigenous Futurism", CBC, January 2021, 54 mins.
• Eric Molinsky, "Imaginary Worlds Episode 211: Indigenous Futurisms", Imaginary Worlds Podcast, Episode 211, Audio. Speakers: Grace L. Dillon, Danis Goulet, Stephen Graham-Jones, Virgil Ortiz.
• Anisha Baid, Subash Thebe Limbu, "Towards an Adivasi Futurism: An Interview with Subash Thebe Limbu", ASAP Art, March 16 2021.

Essays, Articles, Book Chapters

• Grace L. Dillon, “Imagining Indigenous Futurisms”, Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, University of Arizona Press, 2012, pp 1-12.

• Alicia Inez Guzmán, "Indigenous Futurisms", InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture, March 15 2015.

• Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, "We Live in the Future. Come Join Us.", HeHiale.com, April 2015.

• Erica Violet Lee, "Reconciling in the Apocalypse", The Monitor, Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, March 1 2016.

• Jas M. Morgan, "Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurisms", GUTS Magazine Issue #6, May 20 2016.

• Amba J. Sepie, "Tracing the Motherline: Earth Elders, Decolonising Worldview, and Planetary Futurity", 2018.

• Henrietta Lidchi, Suzanne Newman Fricke, "Future History:Indigenous Futurisms in North American Visual Arts", World Art, 2019, pp. 99-102.

• Suzanne Kite, "Dreaming a Sovereign Indigenous Future", The Funambulist, Issue 24: Futurisms, June 28 2019.

• Margaret Carrigan, Santiago X, "One mound at a time: Native American artist Santiago X on rebuilding Indigenous cities", The Art Newspaper, September 20 2019.

• Lindsay Nixon, "Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurism", Otherwise Worlds, Duke University Press, January 2020.

• Rudy, "Rethinking the Apocalypse: An Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto", Indigenous Action, March 19 2020.

• Jameson Page, Santiago X, "Indigenous Futurism Is Now: In Conversation with Santiago X", Public Parking, March 20 2020.

• Rea McNamara, "Skawennati Makes Space for Indigenous Representation and Sovereignty in the Virtual World of Second Life", Art News, July 1 2020.

• Monica Whitepigeon, "Indigenous Futurists Strive to Reach Chicago’s Art Community", Native News Online, July 27 2020.

• Subash Thebe Limbu, "Adivasi Futurism", August 09 2020.

• Sophie Gergaud, "Indigenous Cinemas and Futurisms: How Indigenous Visual Arts Are Shifting the Narratives and Offering a New Relationship to Space and Landscapes", Ranam (Recherches anglaises et nord-américaines) Journal, Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, Issue 54: "Landscapes and aesthetic spacialities in the Anthropocene", 2021, pp. 151-169.

• "What Is Indigenous Futurism?", Center for Architecture Lab: Indigenous Scholars of Architecture, Planning and Design (ISAPD), May 2021.

• Grace Dillon, Pedro Neves Marques, "Taking the Science Fiction Out of Science Fiction: A Conversation About Indigenous Futurisms", eflux journal issue #120, September 2021.

• Abaki Beck, "Indigenous Futurism", We R Native.

• Chelsea Vowel, "Writing Toward a Definition of Indigenous Futurism", Literary Hub, June 10 2022.

• "Pasifikafuturism - embracing Pacific conceptions of the future", Massey News, Massey University, Te Kunenga Ki Pūrihuroa, September 01 2022.

• Gina Cole, "'Pasifikafuturism': The new genre of science fiction invented by author Gina Cole", Stuff.co.nz, October 29 2022.

• Sinead Overbye, "Whetūrangitia/Made as Stars: Transforming Indigenous Futurism", The Pantograph Punch, January 19 2023.

• Saddaf Padder, "In Search of Inclusive South Asian Futurisms", Hyperallergic, March 22 2023.

• Vaaswat Saarkar, "Inside Artist Subash Thebe Limbu's Intersectional World Of Adivasi Futurism", Homegrown.co.in, May 05 2023.

• Hina Siddiqui, "Cultural Futurism: Possibilities, Probabilities and Potential", Art Now Thus, May 29 2023.

• Vítor Castelõs Gama, Alan de Sá, G.G. Diniz (Eds.), "Afrofuturism, Amazofuturism, Indigenous Futurism, and Sertãopunk in Brazilian Science Fiction", The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, 2023.

• Gregory Loui, "Pasifika Futurism and Peacebuilding", Institute for Climate and Peace, Medium.com, July 24 2023.

• Gina Cole, "Wayfinding Pasifikafuturism: An Indigenous Science Fiction Vision of the Ocean in Space", The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, 2023.

• Juleana Enright, "Magical Realism & Indigenous Futures:An Interview with Cara Romero", Bockley Gallery, September 02 2023.

• Timotéo I. Montoya II, "INDIGENEITY--Global Futurisms: Prophetic Practices of Reclamation, Liberation and Transcendence", A Companion to Contemporary Art in a Global Framework, Chapter 19, Wiley Blackwell, October 2023.

• Carlos Quijon, Jr. "Archipelagic Futurisms", National Gallery Singapore, Dec 9 2023.

• Alice Ming Wai Jim, "Ethnic futurisms and contemporary art", Art and knowledge after 1900, December 12 2023.

• Zafrah Khalid, "Navigating Native Slipstream and Indigenous Futurism: Upending Western Tropes in Pakistani Speculative Art", University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics & Literature, Volume 8, ISSUE I, February 2024.

• Atifa Qazi, Ruben Donsbach, Elias Riadi, "Indigenous Futurism: 'I love science fiction'”, Kultur Austauch Magazine, Issue 02, April 02 2024.

• Mai'a Williams, "Awanigiizhik Bruce: Indigenous Futurism Can Save the World", Creative Exchange, May 20 2024.

• Feng-yi Chu, "Archipelagic Plural Futures: Carlos Quijon, Jr. and His Curatorial Practices", Screen, May 22 2024.

• Kate Nelson, "See the future through the eyes of 6 Indigenous artists", National Geographic, June 28 2024. Featuring Cannupa Hanska Luger, Star WallowingBull, Caroline Monnet, Sarah Roselena, Nicholas Galanin, Casey Koyczan.

• Keolu Fox, "What does the future look like in Indigenous hands?", National Geographic, June 28 2024.

• Kai (Kari) Altmann, "XLE.LIFE: New Terms 2024: Indigenous Futurism(s)", XLE.LIFE, July 13 2024.

• Kira Xonorika, "Indigenous Futurisms as Planetary Assemblage", Hyundai Artlab Editorial Fellowship, August 01 2024.

See Also

Futurisms, Worlding, Re-Worlding, Wilding and Re-Wilding, Afrofuturism, Global South Futurisms, South Asian Futurisms, Dalit Futurism, Dalit Feminism, Adivasi Futurism, Chicanafuturism, Aboriginal Futurism, Subaltern Futurism, Amazofuturism, Post Western, Tropical Futurism, Decolonization, Queer Studies, Queer Futurism, Ethno Futurism