<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Film has been the primary way dominant society has consumed inaccurate and problematic symbols, images, and stereotypes of Native peoples for over one hundred years. Indigenous-made films, on the other hand, reclaim Indigenous representational space or ‘visual sovereignty’ through narratives of Indigenous experience that highlight culturally relevant stories and contemporary issues they face. In particular, Indigenous-made speculative fiction inspires contemplations of Indigenous agency in alternative realities. Indigenous futurisms expressed in works of speculative fiction is a rejection of theoretical, institutional, and political projects that imagined Indigenous peoples in the past and excluded them from the future. Through a survey of Neshnabé speculative fiction and other art, this article argues that Indigenous futurisms constitute creative approaches to sovereignty in a multiplicity of potential futures and is an analytical framework that illuminates the ever-expanding contours of Indigenous sovereignty in order to imagine an otherwise to present and past circumstances of Indigenous existence.</p>
</abstract>

Film has been the primary way dominant society has consumed inaccurate and problematic symbols, images, and stereotypes of Native peoples for over one hundred years. Indigenous-made films, on the other hand, reclaim Indigenous representational space or ‘visual sovereignty’ through narratives of Indigenous experience that highlight culturally relevant stories and contemporary issues they face. In particular, Indigenous-made speculative fiction inspires contemplations of Indigenous agency in alternative realities. Indigenous futurisms expressed in works of speculative fiction is a rejection of theoretical, institutional, and political projects that imagined Indigenous peoples in the past and excluded them from the future. Through a survey of Neshnabé speculative fiction and other art, this article argues that Indigenous futurisms constitute creative approaches to sovereignty in a multiplicity of potential futures and is an analytical framework that illuminates the ever-expanding contours of Indigenous sovereignty in order to imagine an otherwise to present and past circumstances of Indigenous existence.

Sovereign Futures in Neshnabé Speculative Fiction

Borderlands Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Sovereign Futures in Neshnabé Speculative Fiction"}

Film has been the primary way dominant society has consumed inaccurate and problematic symbols, images, and stereotypes of Native peoples for over one hundred...

Sovereign Futures in Neshnabé Speculative Fiction

Published Online: Mar 11, 2021

Page range: 29 - 62

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/borderlands-2020-009

Keywords
Indigenous Futurisms, Science Fiction, Sovereignty, Traditional Knowledge, Speculative Fiction

© 2020 Blaire Topash-Caldwell published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Sovereign Futures in Neshnabé Speculative Fiction

Published Online: Mar 11, 2021

Page range: 29 - 62

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/borderlands-2020-009

KeywordsIndigenous Futurisms, Science Fiction, Sovereignty, Traditional Knowledge, Speculative Fiction

© 2020 Blaire Topash-Caldwell published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Keywords
Indigenous Futurisms, Science Fiction, Sovereignty, Traditional Knowledge, Speculative Fiction