Afro-futurisms and Indigenous futurisms

 The phrase “Indigenous futurisms” is often used to describe Indigenous speculative fiction. According to David Gaertner, Grace Dillon was the first to use the term “Indigenous futurisms” in 2003 (Gaertner, 2015, para. 13). Gaertner says “Indigenous futurism itself draws on Afrofuturism… In many ways Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism are pragmatic antidotes to contemporary reconciliation narratives, insofar as they look towards the future survivance of Indigenous peoples and people of colour within a system that, reconciled or not, continues to inflict violence against their bodies” (Gaertner, 2015, para. 14).

Mark Dery (1993), who created the term Afro-futurisms, says:

Speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth century technoculture—and, more generally, African-American signification that appropriates images of technology and a prosthetically enhanced future—might, for want of a better term, be called ‘Afrofuturism.’ The notion of Afrofuturism gives rise to a troubling antinomy: Can a community whose past has been deliberately rubbed out, and whose energies have subsequently been consumed by the search for legible traces of its history, imagine possible futures? (p. 736)

Samual R. Delany, in an interview with Mark Dery, explains that Black people have been “impoverished in terms of future images” because during slavery his ancestors were systemically denied the ability to know and share their history,” (Delany in Dery, 1993, p. 742). Black history is a “violently contested area,” which limits the ability to have future images (p. 743). GregTate, also interviewed by Dery, says:

One of the things that characterizes science fiction is the somewhat didactic way in which instruction is given about the potential for catastrophe in a society when its members don’t pay attention to the paths that either a new technology or an aberrant life form may take. In that sense, SF parallels traditional mythology, which is full of cautionary tales. (Tate, cited in Dery, 1993, p. 764)

Dery also imagines science fiction as “philosophical inquiry and technological speculation” which leads towards self-knowledge (p. 766). He says self-knowledge is particularly valuable for Black readers and writers because for Black people self-knowledge “is not something that’s given to you, institutionally; it’s an arduous journey that must be undertaken by the individual” (Dery, 1993, p. 766).

If you would like to listen to an Afro-futurism short story along with a commentary on the significance of the genre I recommend the LeVar Burton Reads podcast episode on Octavia Butler (Burton, 2018). LeVar Burton was the star of a long-standing American children's education television series called Reading Rainbow as well as an actor on the Star Trek science fiction television series. Olivia Butler is one of the founding authors in the genre of what is now known as Afro-futurisms. Her work has inspired many, including the authors of a collection of short stories called Octavia's brood: Science fiction stories from social justice movements (brown & Imarisha, 2015). In the introduction, editor Walidah Imarisha (2015) says “All organizing is science fiction. Organizers and activists dedicate their lives to creating an envisioning another world, or many other worlds – so what better venue for organizers to explore their work than science fiction stories?” (p. 3). So, science fiction can be a method of orienting our lives and energy towards a better future. In a Simon Fraser University Below the Radar podcast where Imarisha discusses their book, she notes that utopia/dystopia may, at times, be contingent on perspective. As an example, she says that Portland may be seen by many as a progressive utopia. However, because legacies of racial exclusion endure in the region, it is a white progressive utopia, which means that for non-white people, it may be experienced as a dystopia (Johal, 2022).

Before I delve into Indigenous futurisms, I’d like to pause and set two parameters around the juxtaposition of Afro-futurisms and Indigenous futurisms. The first parameter is that while Indigenous futurisms draws inspiration from Afro-futurisms, the two are not interchangeable. Rifkin (2019) explains that Black and Indigenous struggles “emerge out of a ‘shared history’ of white supremacist violence, exploitation, and expropriation” (p. 1); however, their political struggles are “oriented in different ways,” which “does not mean understanding them as utterly dissimilar or as having no points of intersection of mutual imbrication” (p. 5). Rifkin discourages attempts to try to “force them into alignment” (p. 6) and instead says that acknowledging their differences “opens up the potential for acknowledging a plurality of legitimate, non-identical truth claims, none of which should be taken as the singular and foundational way that the real is structured” (p. 8). When writing about Indigenous Futurisms and Afrofuturisms, it’s important to respect their respective uniqueness rather than seeking homogeneity. It might appear expedient to collapse the two into one category for ease of reference; however, doing so erases rather than celebrates difference.

The second parameter is expressed in Chelsea Vowel’s comment that “I refuse to exclude the potential and real Indigeneity of black people, either implicitly or through omission” (Vowel, 2022). She does not elaborate on it, but I believe this is an acknowledgement of African Indigeneity. I also perceive it as an acknowledgement that some people are both Indigenous to North America and Black.

Indigenous futurisms is a term that is used to describe creative works and to some degree it is a way of engaging in the world, but I would posit that it is not fixed genre with identifiable parameters. Rather than thinking of it as a category, I think of it as a descriptor. Items which could be included in Indigenous futurisms could include video games, art, essays, utopias, dystopias, post-apocalyptic fiction, science fiction, slipstream, alternative histories, time travel, inter-dimensional travel, horror, and so on. I first learned about Indigenous futurisms through Kimiwan Zine’s special issue on Indigenous futurisms in 2014. Kimiwan Zine featured many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit contributors and was published by a Cree collective. Along with the launch of the special issue, they also collaborated with RPM Records to release an Indigenous futurisms mixtape (Kimiwan Zine & RPM Records, 2014).  

Two novels which could be described as Indigenous futurisms were recently featured in an annual high-profile battle-of-the-books. Canada’s public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, holds an annual book contest. First, a longlist of books is released. Then a panel of five advocates is selected, with each panelist tasked with arguing that every Canadian should read their assigned book. The panelists participate in public debates with each other. At the end of each debate, they vote one book off of the list until only one book is left. That book is the winner. Each year there is a new theme. Métis author Cherie Dimaline’s novel The marrow thieves (2017) was on theshortlist for 2018, and the theme was “one book to open your eyes” (CBC, 2018). Anishinaabe author Waubgeshig Rice’s novel Moon of the crusted snow (2018) was on the long list for 2023, and the theme was “one book to shift your perspective” (CBC, 2023).

There are also scholarly titles which could be described as Indigenous futurisms. Otherwise worlds: Against settler colonialism and anti-Blackness (2020) is an anthology of interviews, essays, and visual art from Black and Indigenous thinkers. It was edited by Tiffany Lethabo King, Jenell Navarro (Cherokee), and Andrea Smith. In the introduction, the editors assert that Indigenous and Black people have a shared goal of decolonization, yet do not have consensus on how to achieve it. For example, they note that Black calls for land as reparations affirm the state’s right to distribute land (p. 7). However, Indigenous people assert their own sovereignty and question the existence of the United States, let alone the United States’ right to redistribute land (p. 7). The editors state that the collection was not intended to be prescriptive, but rather is an opportunity to ask questions about the relationship between Black and Indigenous peoples/studies (p. 21). “Indigenous futurisms” is an essay in the book by Cree-Métis-Saulteaux writer, scholar, and editor Lindsay Nixon. Nixon (2020) says “The future imaginary becomes a realm within which Indigenous artists express disconnection from kinship and land, a medicinal space to imagine new futures for Indigenous life” (p. 339). I note that they state that it is Indigenous people who express themselves through/in Indigenous futurisms, as opposed to including within the definition non-Indigenous representations of Indigenous people. In saying that it is a “medicinal space,” Nixon is implying that futurisms are not just a product. They are a way of interacting with the world. Those creating works within the realm of Indigenous futurisms create medicinal space for themselves and for those who read/view the works.

Rehearsals for living (2022) is a series of letters between Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. They grapple with the problems of today and discuss Black and Indigenous futures from their respective standpoints as a Black scholar (Robyn Maynard) and an Indigenous scholar (Leanne Simpson). In the first letter, Maynard writes to Simpson, “I am writing to you a letter at the end of (this) world” (p. 14). In the last letter, Simpson writes to Maynard, “We are remaking the whole world” (p. 185). Her signoff says “hope is a practice. So is our continuous rebirth” (p. 186). Neither author uses the terms “Indigenous futurisms” nor “Afrofuturisms” and I am not sure if they would categorize their work as such, or if they would just say their work talks about the future.  

German scholar Kristina Baudemann (2019) writes, “Indigenous futurisms frequently revolve around Indigenous conceptions of time, revisit colonial history, and carve out sovereign Indigenous spaces within and across different discourses for the imagining of an Indigenous-centered future” (p. 151). Not all Indigenous futurisms are set in the future. It is possible to imagine an Indigenous-centered future through a story not set in the future. An example of a work which is set in the past, but could be categorized as Indigenous futurism, is Jeff Barnaby’s residential school revenge fantasy set in 1979, Rhymes with young ghouls (2013). In an interview, Barnaby explains that the question left to the characters at the end of the film is “how do we move forward into the future?” (DaCosta, 2014, para. 16). A futurist work set in the present, nehiyaw visual artist Joi Arcand’s 2010 photo series “Here on future Earth” contains photos of seemingly mundane buildings; however, the neon signage on the buildings is written in Cree syllabics. “Arcand wants us tothink about these photographs as documents of ‘an alternative present,’ of afuture that is within arm’s reach” (Belcourt, 2017, para. 7).

Works Cited 

Barnaby, J (Director). (2013). Rhymes for young ghouls [Film]. Les Films Séville.

Baudermann, K. (2019). Indigenous futurist film: Speculation and resistance in Jeff Barnaby's Rhymes for Young Ghouls and File Under Miscellaneous. In A.J. Ransom and D. Grace (eds) Canadian Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (pp. 151-165). London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.

Belcourt, B. (2017, August 29). The optics of the language: How Joi T. Arcand looks with words. Canadian Art. https://canadianart.ca/features/optics-language-joi-t-arcand-looks-words/

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.

Burton, L. (Host). (2018, April 3). “Childfinder” by Octavia Butler [Audio podcast episode]. Levar Burton Reads. Sticher. https://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/

DaCosta, J. (2014, February 1). Interview with filmmaker Jeff Barnaby on Rhymes for Young Ghouls. Muskrat Magazine. https://muskratmagazine.com/interview-with-filmmaker-jeff-barnaby-on-rhymes-for-young-ghouls/

Dery, M. (1993). Black to the future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose. Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture 92 (4). Pp. 735-778.

Dimaline, C. (2017). The marrow thieves. Toronto, Ontario: Dancing Cat Books.

Gaertner, D. (2015). What's a story like you doing in a place like this? Cyberspace and Indigenous Futurism [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://novelalliances.com/2015/03/23/whats-a-story-like-you-doing-in-a-place-like-this-cyberspace-and-indigenous-futurism-in-neal-stephensons-snow-crash/#_ftn1

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

kimiwan collective. (2014, tākwākin). Indigenous futurisms [Special edition]. kimiwan zine (8).

kimiwan zine collective. (2015). Indigenous futurisms mixtape [Audio]. RPMfm. https://soundcloud.com/rpmfm/indigenous-futurisms-mixtape

Lethabo King, T., Navarro, J., & Smith, A. (2020). Otherwise worlds: Against settler colonialism and anti-blackness. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

Meet the Canada Reads 2018 contenders (2018, January 30). Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2018-contenders-1.4505780

Nixon, L. (2020). Visual cultures of Indigenous futurism. In T. Lethabo King, J. Navarro, A. Smith (Eds.), Otherwise worlds: Against settler colonialism and anti-Blackness (pp. 332-342). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice: A dystopian novel set in a small northern Anishinaabe community (2023, January 12). Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.cbc.ca/books/moon-of-the-crusted-snow-by-waubgeshig-rice-1.4761526

Rice, W. (2018). Moon of the crusted snow. Toronto, Ontario: ECW Press.

Rifkin, M. (2019). Fictions of land and flesh: Blackness, Indigeneity, speculation. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. 

Simpson, L.B. & Manyard, R. (2023). Rehearsals for living. Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Random House Canada. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/675719/rehearsals-for-living-by-robyn-maynard-and-leanne-betasamosake-simpson/9781039000674

Vowel, C. (2022). Buffalo is the new buffalo. Vancouver, British Columbia: Arsenal Pulp Press. 

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This is an excerpt from my dissertation, Singing into the Machine, p.54-58

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