2091 - An Indigenous utopian short story by Elisapie Isaac

Elisapie Isaac is an Inuk artist from Nunavic. She is a performing and recording artist. She sells her albums and merch on her website. Her album covers are striking and imaginative. 

You can find her music video, Quviasukkuvit, on youtube. It is an Inuktitut cover of Sheryl Crow's song If it makes you happy. 

Elisapie Isaac's short story, 2091, is nine pages long and included in the book Wapke: Indigenous Science Fiction Stories. According to the publisher, Wapke is "Quebec’s first collection of science fiction short stories by Indigenous writers." 

2091 begins with a tourism guide, Tayara, greeting a new group of tourists. Imak Tourism, his employer, is a government owned company created in 2030 which provides tourists with two-week cultural tours where among other things they learn about reclaimed place names and reclaimed family names (2021, p. 81). The guide explains that they are “celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the renegotiation of the James Bay Agreement, which declared the independence of Nunavik as an autonomous province” (p. 83). Tayara talks about how shamanic practices were recovered after the potlatch ban and someone asks “how did the shamans re-establish themselves?” (p. 84). Tayara responds:

I’d say that renegotiating the agreement changed everything. We were coming out of the Great Sorrow, what some people also called the Great Silence. A rash of suicides had befallen our communities for at least three generations after the scandal of residential schools and colonization. Men no longer found the words. At the time, food was very expensive, we didn’t have drinking water, we had little or no resources for treating the psychological distress felt in all our communities. The need to take back control of our destiny grew very quickly. After the agreements, a return to the earth became natural. This was accompanied by a reappropriation of our cultural space, including shamanism. We simply put meaning back into our life. At the same time, there was great technological development implemented in the North by and for members of the Inuit community. We built our own universities and research centres. Wildlife management, the fight against global warming, agronomy, you name it. We also established community greenhouses and developed resistant vegetables that we grow for our markets. (pp. 84-5)

The story concludes with the tour guide silently reflecting on his role. “His old soul, borne by the experience of several generations, reminded him that he was the voyager, the translator, the bridge between people, the curious one” (p. 88). 

The agreement referenced in the story is the James Bay Hydro Agreement, which was first signed in 1975, and has since had two subsequent implementation agreements signed as well as an out of court settlement (Government of Canada, 2014). When I first read this story, I was curious about the author and editor’s decision to label it as science fiction. But then I remembered the way that Imarisha linked social justice organizing with science (Imarisha, 2015; Johal, 2022). In this case, on the surface the science in science fiction refers to the way that an Indigenous government redirected scientific research efforts so that science could be used to support the goals of Indigenous people. But through the lens that Imarisha provides, one could also see political science in the form of the renegotiated treaty as the science in this science fiction.

Joshua Whitehead (2021) says “we have already survived the apocalypse—this, right here, right now, is a dystopian present” (p. 10). Elisapie Isaac’s story takes us past the point where an Indigenous community is merely surviving within a post-apocalyptic dystopia, and dreams of a future where an Indigenous community has recovered and is thriving. In 2091, Isaac's characters are post-post-apocalypse. 

As an educator, what stands out to me is the role of Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous identity in this story. In Roanhorse’s (2017) short story Welcome to your authentic Indian experience, an Indigenous person acts out a caricature of Indian-ness for the entertainment of non-Indigenous people. It is undignified, and the commodification of Indigenous identity within a non-Indigenous governing structure leads to an erosion of the integrity of Indigenous knowledge. In Alyssa Jérôme's story Uapuch-unaikan, an Indigenous teacher within a non-Indigenous state is hired to share Indigenous knowledge with the White Elite, and her contract is not honored. She is exploited in order to extract Indigenous knowledge from her. 

These examples are stark contrasts from the tour guide in 2091, who is hired by an Indigenous state to provide tours to people not from that Indigenous community. This knowledge sharing takes place within the control of and at the behest of the Indigenous collective. By educating the outside world about their community on their own terms, this sharing benefits the Indigenous collective. The tour guide is not undignified or exploited. He is happy with the role that he has taken on as someone who educates outsiders about his community. Many stories, including Night raiders and Oienkwaon:we, explore the ways that Indigenous individuals make decisions about how the application of Indigenous knowledge within the context of ongoing and intensified settler colonialism. 2091 imagines what this could look like within the context of Indigenous sovereignty.

Works Cited 

brown, a.m. & Imarisha, W. (2015). Introduction. In a.m. brown & W. Imarisha (Eds.), Octavia’s brood: Science fiction stories from social justice movements (pp. 3-5). Oakland, California: AK Press.

Goulet, D. (2021). Night raiders [Film]. Alcina Pictures, Eagle Vision, Miss Concepion Films & Uno Bravo.

Government of Canada. (2014). The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the Northeastern Quebec Agreement - Annual Reports 2008-2009 / 2009-2010. Government of Canada. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1407867973532/1542984538197

Isaac, E. (2021). 2091. In M. Jean (Ed.), Wapke: Indigenous science fiction stories (pp. 80-88). Holstein, Ontario: Exile Editions Ltd.

Johal, A. (Host). (2022, September 13). Science fiction & social justice — with Walidah Imarisha (Episode 185) [Audio podcast episode]. In Simon Fraser University’s Below the Radar. SFU Vancity Office of Community Engagement. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/185-walidah-imarisha.html

Jerome, A. (2021). Uapuch-unaikan. In M. Jean (Ed.), Wapke: Indigenous science fiction stories (pp. 138-147). Holstein, Ontario: Exile Editions Ltd.

Roanhorse, 2017. Welcome to your authentic Indian experience^TM. Apex Magazine 99 [as this story appears as one long page on the website, page numbers used for in-text citation reflect page numbers of webpage when printed]. https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/welcome-to-your-authentic-indian-experience/

Smith, C. (2016). Oienkwaon: we. In N. McLeod (Ed.), mitewacimowina: Indigenous science fiction and speculative storytelling (pp. 55-68). Penticton, British Columbia: Theytus Books.

Whitehead, J. (2020). Introduction. In J. Whitehead (Ed.), Love after the end: An anthology of Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer speculative fiction (pp. 9-16). Vancouver, British Columbia: Arsenal Pulp Press.  

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This is an adapted excerpt from my dissertation, Singing into the Machine, p.133-135

This blog is a sister blog to https://twinkleshappyplace.blogspot.com/