History of the New World - short story in which manatees/Mermaids express concern about interdimensional colonization

 Adam Garnet Jones is an author and filmmaker. 

His film Fire Song won the ImagineNative Film Festival's Audience Choice Award and was also nominated for a Leo. I'm not sure where to watch it, but the trailer is available on IMBD. It's also a book which I have not yet read as I just became aware of it... so adding it to my list! 

His short story History of the New World is included in the anthology Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer & Speculative Fiction. 

Summary

Earth is becoming uninhabitable. But thanks to trans-dimensional travel, people are able to travel to an alternate dimension. The main character in this story, Em, is deciding whether or not to move his family to the new dimension. His partner is keen to go. But he is hesitant. The government publishes media encouraging people to go to the new world. But then one day they also provide a troubling update: 

The United Governments of the New World were rocked yesterday by an audio communication from an underwater species that bears a striking physical resemblance to Earth's extinct manatees. New World pioneers have begun referring to them as the Mermaids. Our United Governments have not yet revealed the content of the message, but they assure us that it contains a single non-threatening phrase repeated on a loop. Citizen academics from disciplines as far-ranging as musicology, cryptography, theology, and engineering are claiming to have decoded the Mermaid's message, have released various translations. The first interpretation was published as, "Your circle is not round." A rival group of scientists claim that the phrase translates more accurately as "All beings require more than one tide." The latest and perhaps most cryptic interpretation states, "Even desert animals live underwater." (Garnet Jones, 2020, p.44).

Upon hearing this, Em is overwhelmed by his Indigenous intergenerational memories of colonization. Ultimately Em's daughter decides not to travel to the new dimension and Em chooses to respect her choice. Em's wife does go to the new dimension. Em and his daughter join the Rainbow People's Camp, a protest camp which seeks to revive Indigenous culture, language, and connection to the land. 

Reflection

The first time that I read this, I loved the choice to make manatees the creatures who deliver this message. Sweet, vulnerable manatees swimming around in another dimension and being concerned for the well-being of the arriving humans. I also find it interesting that theology is thrown into the mix of people trying to decode the manatee's message. 

I think this story raises an interesting question. If we wreck the planet in our dimension, then is it ethical to go and colonize another dimension?

Works Cited

Garnet Jones, A. (2020). History of the new world. In J. Whitehead (Ed.), Love after the end: An anthology of Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer speculative fiction (pp. 35-60). Vancouver, British Columbia: Arsenal Pulp Press.