Indigenous Futurism: How Science Fiction Helps Overcome Trauma and Vision the Future
What happens when indigenous storytellers design their own future? When they are no longer portrayed as figures of a romanticized past world, but as architects of coming centuries? Indigenous Futurism is a revolutionary artistic and literary movement that does exactly that. It uses the tools of science fiction, fantasy, speculation, and horror to process colonial trauma, design resistant visions of the future, and project indigenous existence into all temporalities – including those yet to come.
What is Indigenous Futurism? A Definition Beyond Star Trek
Coined by author Dr. Grace Dillon (Anishinaabe), the term describes works in which indigenous artists “extend indigeneity into the future”. It is not about assimilation into a Western-influenced high-tech utopia, but about visions of the future based on indigenous knowledge, cosmology, resistance, and revival. Genres are reclaimed in the process: spaceships may look like canoes, AI may be inhabited by ancestral spirits, and cyborgs may wear traditional tattoos as circuits. This futurism is decolonial, hopeful, and radically inviting.
Past Traumas vs. Future Imagination: The Healing Power of “What-If”
The predominant narratives about indigenous peoples are often shaped by loss, trauma, and cultural extinction. Indigenous Futurism breaks this spell of tragedy. By telling stories where indigenous characters, languages, and worldviews thrive in distant galaxies, post-apocalyptic landscapes, or alternate realities, it does three healing things:
- Decolonizes the Imagination: It liberates the future from the assumption that progress must inevitably be Western.
- Normalizes Indigenous Existence: Seeing indigenous people building space stations or negotiating with non-human species makes their mere presence in the future self-evident.
- Transforms Trauma into Agency: Telling one’s own, speculative future is an act of sovereignty. It responds to the colonial attempt to deny a future for indigenous peoples with its own, diverse vision.
Key Works and Pioneers of Indigenous Futurism
The movement is diverse and global. Here are some central voices:
Rebecca Roanhorse (Ohkay Owingeh) – Post-Apocalypse and Indigenous Magic
Her bestseller “Trail of Lightning” is set in a Navajo Nation (Dinétah) devastated by an environmental disaster. The heroine, Maggie Hoskie, is a monster hunter whose powers are based on traditional knowledge. Roanhorse creates a world where indigenous mythology shapes the new reality and the survivors of the apocalypse are not white people, but Diné.
Cherie Dimaline (Métis) – The Future of Community
In “The Marrow Thieves”, humanity has lost the ability to dream – only indigenous peoples in North America still can. They are hunted for it. The novel is an allegory of colonialism and genocide, but also a powerful celebration of resilience, connection to the earth, and the healing power of community and stories.
Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet) – Indigenous Horror
His work, such as “The Only Good Indians”, merges social horror with supernatural elements. He explores how the ghosts of the past – personal and historical – return to the present. This is futurism that engages with the unfinished spirits of history to make a future possible at all.
Wakanda and “Reservation Dogs” – Mainstream Influences
Marvel’s “Black Panther” (inspired by various African cultures) showed the power of Afrofuturist aesthetics. The series “Reservation Dogs” (by indigenous creators) integrates magical realism and pop culture references into present-day life on the rez. Both prove that indigenous and decolonial futurisms can excite a mass audience.
Indigenous Futurism in Film, Art, and Gaming
- Film/VR: Artists like Skawennati (Mohawk) create virtual worlds in “Time Traveller™” where indigenous characters travel through time and renegotiate historical trauma.
- Visual Art: Artists like Nadia Myre (Anishinaabe) or Kent Monkman (Cree) place indigenous bodies and symbols in futuristic or speculative contexts to question power structures.
- Gaming: Games like “Never Alone” (Kisima Ingitchuna), developed with Iñupiat elders, or “Thunderbird Strike” by Elizabeth LaPensée (Anishinaabe/Métis) transform indigenous myths into interactive experiences, making players guardians of land and culture.
Why This Movement is Important for Everyone – Including Non-Indigenous People
Indigenous Futurism offers more than niche entertainment. It is an essential corrective to our collective imagination.
- It Offers Solution Models: Indigenous worldviews based on reciprocity, sustainability, and community offer radical alternatives to exploitative future models.
- It Teaches Complex Historical Understanding: It shows that the past is not dead but actively influences the future – and that we can shape this relationship.
- It Expands Our Capacity for Empathy: It invites us to see the world through a decolonial lens and celebrate the polyphony of humanity in the future.
How You Can Engage with Indigenous Futurism
The journey begins with curiosity and respectful consumption:
- Read: Start with anthologies like “Walking the Clouds” (Grace Dillon) or “Love After the End” (Joshua Whitehead).
- Listen: Look for podcasts and TED Talks by indigenous futurists.
- Support: Buy books directly from indigenous publishers or bookstores. Visit exhibitions of indigenous media art.
- Reflect: Ask yourself: What visions of the future have I internalized? Where are indigenous perspectives missing in my science fiction world?
Indigenous Futurism is not an escape from reality. It is a profound engagement with it, oriented toward the possibility of healing and new beginnings. It takes the tools with which indigenous peoples were often written out of the future (technology, progress narratives) and writes themselves back in. In a time of climate crisis and global upheaval, these visions of a future based on connection, resilience, and old-new knowledge may be the most important science fiction stories we all need to hear.